3lmewan Commontuealtl^gt, 



EDITED BY 



HOKACE E. SCUDDER. 



SUmmtan ComniontDeaftfj^r 



OREGON 



THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION 



BY 



WILLIAM BARROWS 



SEVENTH EDITION 




BOSTON 

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 



.■;i 



)¥y: 



New York; 11 East Seventeenth Street 
1892 



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Copyright, 1883, 
By WILLIAM BARROWS. 

All rights reserved. 



By TraniSi 



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The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. 
Electrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Company. 



TO THE ONE 

WHO SUGGESTED THIS VOLUME, 

AND 

GAVE UP THE AUTHOR 

TO ALCOVE STUDIES AND FRONTIER WANDERINGS FOR IT; 

WHO HAS BREATHED THE HOME INSPIRATION 

THAT MAKES LIFE A JOY AND WORK A DELIGHT: 

TO MY WIFE, 

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED, 

BY 

HER HUSBAND. 



'epartmenh 
' ne interior. 



THE AUTHORITIES ON THE STRUGGLE OF FIVE 
NATIONS FOR OREGON. 

[It has seemed best to name these in summary, in order to avoid burden- 
ing the text with very many references, and to afford aid to any who may 
wish to study this topic more at large.] 

Astor, John Jacob, Letter of, to the Hon. J. Q. Adams : Agree- 
ment for the Sale of Astoria, and Account of the Capture of 
Astoria, in Greenhow's History of Oregon and California. 
Appendix G. 

Bancroft, George. History of the United States. 

Barrow, Sir John. Chronological History of Voyages into the 
Arctic Regions. London, 1818. 

Belcher, Edward, R. N,, etc. Narrative of a Voyage Round the 
World. London, 1843. 

Bent, Silas. Gateways to the Pole, or Thermal Paths to the 
Pole. 1872. 

Benton, T. H. Thirty Years' View. From 1820 to 1850. 
1854. 

Brougham, Lord. Speech on the Ashburton Treaty, or Treaty 
of Washington, April 7, 1843. 

Browne, Peter A., LL. D. Lecture on the Oregon Territory. 
1843. 

Butler, Capt. W. F., F. R. G. S. Great Lone Land. London, 
1872. 

Calhoun, John C, Speech of, on the Treaty of Washington, in 
the Senate, August, 1842. 

Carver, Jonathan. Travels throughout the Interior Parts of 
North America, 1766-1768. 1813. 

Congress. Congressional Reports, House of Representatives ; 
Linn's, June 6, 1838; Poinsett's, Secretary War, 1840; Pen- 
dleton's, May 25, 1842 ; and Report of March 12, 1844. 
Executive Document No. 37 of the 41st Congress, 3d Session, 
Senate. February 9, 1871. 



iv AUTHORITIES. 

House Document No. 38 of 35th Congress, 1859. 

Journals of both Houses of Congress and the Abridgment of 

Debates, for the years covered. 
Message of President J. Q. Adams. With accompanying Doc- 
uments. December 28, 1827. 
Papers relating to the Treaty of Washington, Berlin Arbitra- 
tion, Foreign Relations of the United States. 3d Session, 
42d Congress, 1872-73. 
Senate of the United States : Documents, 1837. On the Trans- 
fer of the Louisiana to the United States. 
Territory of Oregon. 25th Congress, 3d Session House of Rep- 
resentatives. Report No. 101. By Caleb Cushing. Febru- 
ary 16, 1839. 

Cook, Capt. James, F. R. S. Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. 
Third Voyage. Dublin, 1784. 

Coxe, William, A. M. Russian Discoveries between Asia and 
America. 1780. 

Curtis. Life of Daniel Webster. 1870. 

Cushing, Caleb. Treaty of Washington. 1873. 

De Smet. Oregon Missions. 

Dunn, John. History of the Oregon Territory and the British 
North American Fur Trade. 1845. 

Falconer, Thomas. The Oregon Question ; or, A Statement of 
the British Claims to the Oregon Territory, etc. ■ London, 
1845. Strictures on the Above. By Robert Greenhow. His- 
tory of Oregon and California, pp. 1-7. 

Farnham, Thomas J. Travels in the Great Western Prairies 
and Anahuac, and Rocky Mountains, and in the Oregon Terri- 
tory. 1843. 
ftzgerald. Examination of the Hudson Bay Company. Lon- 

'^don, 1849. 

Fremont, J. C, Brevet-Captain. Report of the Exploring Ex- 
pedition to Oregon and North California in the years 1843-44. 
Washington, 1845. 

Frobisher, Martin, Three Voyages of. Hakluyt Society. Voy- 
ages toward the Northwest. London, 1849. 

Gallatin, Albert, Letters of, on the Oregon Question. Washing- 
ton, 1846. 

Gayarre, Charles. History of Louisiana. The French Domina- 
tion. 1854. 



AUTHORITIES. V 

Gray, W. H. History of Oregon from 1792-1849. 1870. 

Greenhow, Robert. History of Oregon and California. 1845. 

Harmon, D. W. Journal of Voyages and Travels in the Interior 
of North America. 1820. 

Hearne, Samuel. Journey to the Northern Ocean. London, 
1795. 

Hines, Rev. Gustavus. Oregon : Its History, Condition, and 
Prospects. 1851. 

Irving, Washington. Astoria. 1836. Rocky Mountains and 
Adventures in the Far West. From the Journal of Capt. 
B. L. E. Bonneville. 1837. 
Life of George Washington. 1857. 

Jeffrey. History of the French Dominion in North America. 

Kelley, Hall J. Emigration to the Oregon Territory, A Society 
for Promoting. Hall J. Kelley, General Agent. 1831. 

Lewis and Clark, History of the Expedition of. By Paul Allen, 
1814. 

Long, S. H., Major. An Expedition from Pittsburgh to the 
Rocky Mountains, 1819-20, by order of John C. Calhoun, Sec- 
retary of War. 

Mackenzie, Alexander. Voyages from Montreal, through the 
Continent of North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans. 
London, 1801. 

Martin, R. M. Hudson Bay Territories and Vancouver's Island. 
London, 1849. 

Monette, John W., M. D. History of the Discovery and Settle- 
ment of the Valley of the Mississippi. 1846. Harpers. 

Parker, Rev. Samuel. Exploring Tour beyond the Rocky Moun- 
tains. 1842. 

Parkman, Francis. Pioneers of France in the New World ; The 
Jesuits in North America ; The Discovery of the Great West ; 
The Old Regime in Canada ; Count Frontenac and New 
France under Louis XIV. ; History of the Conspiracy of 
Pontiac ; The Oregon Trail ; Prairie and Rocky Mountain 
Life. 1865-1877. 

Pike, Major Z. M. Expeditions to the Sources of the Missis- 
sippi, Arkansas, Kansas, and La Platte. 1807. 

Pilcher. Narrative of Travels in the Missouri, Columbia, Assin- 
niboin, etc., 1827-29. A Document accompanying the Message 
of President Jackson, January 23, 1829. 



vi AUTHORITIES. 

Porter, Robert E. The West : From the Census of 1880. 

Robinson, H. M. Great Fur Land. 1879. 

Selkirk, Lord. British Fur-Trade in North America, A Sketch 
of. 

Simpson, Sir George, Governor in Chief of the Hudson Bay- 
Company in North America. Narrative of a journey Round 
the World. London, 1847. 

Small, Hugh. Oregon and Her Resources. 1872. 

Townsend, J. K. Narrative of a Journey across the Rocky 
Mountains to the Columbia. 1839. 

Twiss, Travers, Professor of Political Economy, Oxford. Ore- 
gon Question Examined. London, 1846. 

Victor, Mrs. F. F. River of ^le West. 1871. 

Walker, Charles M. History of Athens County, Ohio. 2869. 

Wallace, Edward J., M. A. Oregon Question. London, 1846. 

Webster and Ashburton. Correspondence between Mr. Webster 
and Lord Ashburton, on the McLeod Case ; on the Creole 
Case ; On the Subject of Impressment. 1841-42. 

Webster, Daniel, Private Correspondence of. Edited by Fletcher 
Webster. 1857. 

Wilkeson, Samuel. Notes on Puget Sound : A Reconnoissance. 
1869. 

Westminster Review. The Last Great Monopoly. July, 1867, 
and in Littell, August 10, 1867, No. 1210. 

Wyeth, J. B. Oregon : or, A Short History of a Long Journey, 
1833. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

I. The European Powers in America ... 1 
II. Spain Enters the Struggle and Fails, . . 5 

III. France Sells her Claims 17 

IV. Russia Declines the Struggle .... 22 
V. English Explorations and Ambitions . . .27 

VI. The Hudson Bay Company 33 

VII. English Monopoly of the Frontier . . .48 
VIII. Astoria ; Its Founding and Failure . . 57 
IX. Face to Face; America and England . . .64 
X. American Speeches, English Steel-traps, and 

Diplomacy 71 

XI. Western Men on the Oregon Trail . . .77 
XII. The Great English Mistake .... 87 

XIII. Four Flat-Head Indians in St. Louis . . . 103 

XIV. "A Quart of Seed Wheat " .... 114 

XV. A Bridal Tour of Thirty-five Hundred Miles . 121 
XVI. Whitman's " Old Wagon " 140 

XVII. Anxiety and Strategy of the Hudson Bay 

Company 147 

XVIII. Whitman's Ride 160 

XIX. Oregon not in the Treaty of Webster and 

ASHBURTON 179 

XX. Is Oregon worth Saving? 189 

XXI. Titles to Oregon . . . . . . . 205 

XXII. The Claims of the United States to Oregon 212 
XXIII. History Vindicated 224 



viii CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

XXIV. Two Hundred Wagons for Oregon . . 239 

XXV. The People Discuss the Question . . . 255 

XXVI. Immigrants Settle the Oregon Question . 263 

XXVII. " Fifty-four Forty, or Fight " . . , . 272 

XXVIII. At Last A Treaty ...... 282 

XXIX. What did the Treaty Mean? . . . .297 

XXX. The Emperor William and Arbitration . 315 

XXXI. The Whitman Massacre 320 

XXXII. The Oregon of To-Day 330 

XXXIII. Conclusion 349 



department 
of the interior. 

OREGON: 

THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE EUROPEAN POWERS IN AMERICA. 

In 1697, the year of the Treaty of Ryswick, Spain 
claimed as her share of North America, on the Atlantic 
coast, from Cape Romaine on the Carolina shore a few 
miles north of Charleston, due west to the Mississippi 
River, and all south of that line to the Gulf of Mexico. 
That line, continued beyond the Mississippi, makes the 
northern boundary of Louisiana. In the valley of the 
lower Mississippi, Spain acknowledged no rival, though 
France was then beginning to intrude. On the basis of 
discovery by the heroic De Soto and others, she claimed 
up to the heads of the Arkansas and the present famous 
Leadville, and westward to the Pacific. On that ocean, 
or the South Sea as it was then called, she set up the 
pretensions of sovereignty from Panama to Nootka 
Sound on Vancouver. These pretensions covered the 
coasts, harbors, islands, and fisheries, and extended them- 
selves indefinitelv inland, and even over the whole Pacific 
Ocean, as then limited. These stupendous claims Spain 
based on discovery, under the papal bull of Alexander 
VI. in 1493. This bull or decree gave to the govern- 
1 



2 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

ment of the discoverer all newly discovered lands and 
waters. In 1513 Balboa, the Spaniard, discovered the 
Pacific Ocean, as he came over the Isthmus of Panama, 
and so Spain came into the ownership of that body of 
water ! Good old times those were, when kings thrust 
their hands into the New World, as children do theirs 
into a grab-bag at a fair, and drew out a river four 
thousand miles long, or an ocean, or a tract of wild land 
ten or fifteen times the size of England ! 

At the Ryswick partition of the world, France held 
good positions in America for the mastery of the con- 
tinent. Beginning on the Mississippi, where the Span- 
ish line crossed it, that is, where Louisiana and Arkan- 
sas unite two of their corners on the Father of Waters, 
the French claimed east on the Spanish boundary, and 
north of it to the watershed between the head streams 
dividing for the Atlantic and the Mississippi. Their 
claim was bounded by this highland line, continuing 
north and east, and still separating Atlantic streams 
from those flowing into the Great Lakes and the St. 
Lawrence. Where this line reached the springs of the 
Penobscot it followed its waters to the ocean. It was 
the proud thought of France, that from the mouth of 
the Penobscot along the entire seaboard to the un- 
known and frozen Arctic, no European power divided 
that coast, and the wild interior back of it, with her. 
So France claimed indefinitely north to the farther rim 
of Hudson Bay, as now known, and all lands drained 
into that Bay, and wildly west to the heads of the Mis- 
sissippi and Missouri, and thence down to our two cor- 
ners of Louisiana and Arkansas. This gave to France 
even the western parts of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and 
New York, and a large northern portion of New Eng- 



THE EUROPEAN POWERS IN AMERICA. 3 

land, as we now name those sections. Certain vague 
doubts hung over those French claims in the great north 
land after the convention of Ryswick, but they were 
claims of little worth. 

Russia had no possessions in North America at the 
date of this survey, 1697. But as Peter the Great, her 
emperor, had at that time his plans matured for gaining 
interests in the New World which afterwards resulted 
in Russian America, and as that nation entered the list 
of competitors for Oregon, it seems best here to outline 
her position on the jSeld of struggle. 

The Russians came into possession on the northwest 
coast of America through their ardor in the fur trade. 
Within a few years after the Treaty of Ryswick, the 
Russians had subdued all Northern Asia in the interests 
of this trade, and Siberia became the great game preserve 
of the empire. When once on the Asiatic shores of the 
Northern Pacific it was natural and not difficult, in the 
chase for the sea-otter and other valuable furs, to push 
off to the Aleutian Islands and then to the American 
mainland of Alaska. So through the enterprise of his 
widow, Queen Catharine, and of his daughter. Queen 
Elizabeth, the wish and vision of Peter the Great were 
realized in a commercial conflict with the Spanish and 
French and English on that coast. Among the distin- 
guished leaders in this Russian enterprise was Bering 
the Dane, who, in his third voyage, gave up his life on 
the desolate little granite island that bears his name and 
his grave. In after years the narrow passage between 
the two continents, through which he had twice sailed 
without discovering the Straits, but supposing himself 
to be in the broad Arctic, was honored with his name. 

Having outlined the claims of these three leading 



4 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

powers in North Araerica at the opening of this narra- 
tive, the English possessions are obvious as the small 
remainder. They constituted the long, narrow Atlantic 
slope, extending from the Spanish Cape Romaine, north 
of Charleston, to the French bounds on the Penobscot, 
and inland up that river and along the watershed of the 
Alleghanies and of the French claim, down to the east 
and west Spanish boundary, and on it to Cape Romaine 
again. 

Under these claims, France and Spain held much more 
territory on this continent than the entire area of the 
continent of Europe ; an estimate of the Russian pos- 
sessions has been given ; the narrow English belt, hug- 
ging the Atlantic, was hardly equal in area to Missouri. 

Of course these outlines are stated only approximate- 
ly, and somewhat guessingly, because of the dark geo- 
graphical ignorance that shrouded North America at the 
opening of the eighteenth century. The pretentious 
claims of royalty, of the papacy, and of the rival favor- 
ites of the different courts, overlapped each other like 
bogus mortgages, and they ran far and wide as liberally 
as astronomical spaces. 

Th-us stood the foreign ownership of the New World 
at the conclusion of the Treaty of Ryswick, 1697. At 
this date and our starting point, England was at her 
minimum and France at her maximum of claims in North 
America, and Spain had come down from grandiloquent 
assumptions to sensible pretensions. 



CHAPTER 11. 

SPAIN ENTERS THE STRUGGLE AND FAILS. 

The claims of Spain in North America have been 
marked off. A notice of the vast shrinkage in her pre- 
tensions, prior to the Treaty of Ryswick, will prepare 
one to trace, in this chapter, her weakening and final 
departure from the contest for Oregon. 

" To prevent collision between Christian princes, on 
the 4th of May, 1493, Alexander VI. published a bull in 
which he drew an imaginary line from the uorth pole to 
the south, a hundred leagues west of the Azores, assign- 
ing to the Spanish all that lies west of that boundary, 
while all to the east of it was confirmed to Portugal." ^ 

Since Spanish navigators had explored somewhat the 
Atlantic Ocean and coasts as far^s Newfoundland, Spain 
claimed, by this papal authority, and under the name of 
Florida, " the whole sea-coast as far as Newfoundland 
and even to the remotest North. In Spanish geography 
Canada was a part of Florida. Yet within that whole 
extent not a Spanish fort was erected nor a harbor was 
occupied nor one settlement was planned." And when 
St. Augustine, Florida, was founded, the bigoted Philip 
II. was proclaimed monarch of all North America. 

More surprising it is to see such pretensions set forth 
at a much later day. The archbishop Lorenzana, in his 

1 Bancroft's History of tht United States, Author's Last Revision, 
vol. i. p. 9. 



6 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

history of New Spain, published in 1770, at the City of 
Mexico, says, " It is doubtful whether the country of New 
Spain does not border on Tartary and Greenland, by the 
way of California on the former, and by New Mexico 
on the latter." The bishop was poor in geography, and 
was in the error then still lingering, that America 
was made up of big islands, extending west and ending 
in the East India Islands, and that one could sail through, 
somewhere, from Newfoundland to China. 

When the French began their discoveries and settle- 
ments in Canada and the other northern provinces, the 
Spanish gradually, but under bloody protests, withdrew 
their claims toward the South. After the Jamestown 
colony was established, and parts of New England oc- 
cupied, they consented to make the southern boundary 
of Virginia the northern boundary of their Florida. 
This was about 1650, and when the royal province of 
Virginia had about fifteen thousand white inhabitants 
and three hundred negro slaves. 

Then followed the English grant for the Carolina 
plantations ; and the recall of the Edict of Nantes, ex- 
pelling many Protestants from France, furnished many 
colonists with other adventurers. The Spanish remon- 
strated against the encroachments, but the English would 
not acknowledge a claim both unwarranted and unused. 
At length, about 1690, the Spanish quietly contracted 
the limits of their shrinking Florida, and agreed to the 
line already named, being a little north of Charleston, 
and running exactly west from Cape Romaine to the 
Mississippi River. 

Having set bounds, mutual and somewhat permanent, 
on the seaboard between themselves and the English, the 
Spanish already began to feel the encroachments of the 



SPAIN ENTERS THE STRUGGLE AND FAILS. 7 

French, down the Mississippi from the St. Lawrence and 
the Great Lakes. Vague and fascinating rumors had 
gone up from time to time, among the scattered and 
frozen settlements of the St. Lawrence, about great 
rivers that never froze over, and plains and warm val- 
leys toward the South Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. As 
early as 1658 French fur traders had wintered on Lake 
Superior, and two years later the devout Menard had 
gone up there, to a death that he knew must soon come 
from the Indians, that he might plant the Cross on the 
barbarous border. More and more, trader and Jesuit, 
forgetful of all toil and danger, threaded the Indian trails 
to the head waters of rivers that disappeared in the mys- 
terious southwest. The almost social waters, as if 
talking of better homes in more sunny climes to which 
they were hastening, tempted these Indian merchants 
and preachers to the bold venture. So with only blankets 
and food for a few days they pushed their frail canoe . 
into the jolly waters, saying : Where shall we land ? 
In the Sea of Virginia? In the South Sea? In the 
Gulf of Mexico ? In China ? In Cathay ? 

In 1 670 the spirited La Salle, a Jesuit priest in France, 
a fur trader and feudal colonist in Canada, and an ardent 
dreamer of the Straits of Anian, opening somewhere 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, floated in his birch 
canoe south as far as Louisville. In 1671 St. Lusson, 
with his fifteen whites, and swarming red men of four- 
teen tribes, chanted the Vexilla Regis at the Sault Ste. 
Marie, the outlet of Lake Superior, and took possession 
for Louis XIV. of all the country bounded by the seas 
of the north and of the west and of the south. It was 
a wonderful occasion in that deep interior wilderness in 
North America. On that leafy morning in June, and 



8 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

on an eminence at the foot of the rapids, the civilians in 
showy armor and the Jesuits in their robes surrounded 
the wooden cross and chanted and offered prayers. The 
Indians, crouching and gliding and gazing on all sides, 
watched the pompous ceremonials while a large part of 
North America was made over to Louis the Grand. A 
volley of musketry, a Vive le Roi, and the yelping of 
the savages closed the marvellous scene. Mr. Parkman 
in his " Discovery of the Great West," — a captivating 
volume, where true and pure history makes the highest 
romance, tells the story with fascination.^ 

Two years later we find Marquette and Joliet at the 
mouth of the Arkansas ; and in 1682 La Salle appears 
again, and now at the mouth of the Mississippi. With 
what daring and romance and grand expectations these 
early voyageurs and the first of white men must have 
glided into and through those primeval solitudes ! 
Twenty-five hundred miles they pushed off into the un- 
known, among savages and wild beasts. Now they take 
the broad stream midway, and now under its dark forest 
banks. One timid deer is shot from the grazing herd, 
and no sound like that has ever waked echoes in that 
stillness of ages. The calm evening comes over the 
prairies, and then the cheery camp-fire, venison, vespers 
and sweet sleep. 

Shortly after the Treaty of Ryswick the French 
began to occupy, and with energy, that portion of the 
great valley that was recognized as their own. As early 
as 1705 Kaskaskia had become a populous and happy 
French post, and seven years later it was constituted the 
capital of the Illinois country, having a population of 
two thousand, a monastery and a college. It was a 
1 Parkman' s Discovery of the Great West, 40-42, 



SPAIN ENTERS THE STRUGGLE AND FAILS. 9 

marked frontier town, and had the vicissitudes of Indian, 
French, and English wars. In 1778 Colonel Clark, by 
one of those heroic and romantic movements that have 
so signalized our frontier and stored it with material for 
an American Walter Scott, took possession of it for the 
young republic. 

In 1682 La Salle spread French claims over the lower 
Mississippi, and three years after he annexed Texas to 
the realm of his king, and established a trading post and 
fort on Isle Dauphin, between which and Quebec a lively 
trade sprang up. Thus early the active and progressive 
French opened a way into the very interior of indolent 
New Spain, and were transporting not only peltries and 
furs, but grain and flour and other agricultural products 
down that mysterious river. 

The same persistent discoverers, the trader and the 
Jesuit, also opened the Ohio, Illinois, Wabash, and Kas- 
kaskia. The bold and far-reaching plan was adopted 
to connect the Great Lakes with the Gulf of Mexico by 
a cordon of military posts. About 1720 the first of 
them. Fort Chartres, was founded on the eastern bank 
of the Mississippi, and about forty-five miles below St. 
Louis. It became the French headquarters for Upper 
Louisiana, and continued for a long time their western 
centre of life and fashion, intrigue and ambition — the 
Paris of the Great West. So active were the French 
that in 1730 they had planted one hundred and forty 
families and six hundred converted Indians on the Illi- 
nois alone, and five years later they founded Vincennes 
on the Wabash, as a military and rallying centre. 

Such was the colonizing activity of the French in 
the upper Mississippi, thus overshadowing and making 
timid the Spanish below. But in Lower Louisiana the 



10 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

encroachments were still more annoying and alarming. 
In 1699 D'Iberville made a settlement near Ship Island, 
and proposed French control over the whole coast and 
region from Pensacola to the Rio Grande. He surveyed 
the Mississippi for about four hundred miles, to the 
region of Natchez, and caused an exploration of Red 
River for a thousand miles from its mouth, and tic 
Arkansas up to Little Rock, while the Washita and 
Yazoo were not neglected. The Missouri he explored 
up to the entrance of the Kansas, and the Mississippi to 
the St. Peter's. Waters now made familiar by steam- 
boats and crossed by railroads the light canoes and 
pirogues of D'Iberville glided over, like waterfowl, shoot- 
ing rapids, making " carries," and submitting to no ob- 
stacles. No white man had ever before much disturbed 
these hidden recesses of nature. 

In 1710 the entire population of Lower Louisiana 
amounted to only three hundred and eighty souls — a 
small village to-day. The men were ignorant, indolent, 
and vicious ; negro slaves and Indian girls did the most 
of the work, and the loose, arms-length government was 
supported by a hundred and seventy-five soldiers. 

The Spanish governor at Pensacola remonstrated 
against these French intrusions, but as his remonstrance 
was able to do no more it was in vain. On the east of 
the Mississippi the Perdido had been accepted by both 
governments as the eastern line of the French and the 
western one of Florida. But on the west of the Missis- 
sippi all claims to territory were in a contested uncer 
tainty. While the Spanish claimed eastward, acros 
Texas, almost to the Mississippi, the French claime 
westward across the entire province to the Rio Grande. 

Nor was the struggle between the two foreign crown 



SPAIN ENTERS THE STRUGGLE AND FAILS. 11 

confined in that Indian wilderness of the New World to 
the Gulf coast and the deltas of the lower valley. Span- 
ish adventurers from New Mexico and the Santa Fe 
country had ranged north and east, across the upper 
Arkansas, to the Missouri and Mississippi, and found 
there also the intruding and irrepressible French. An 
expedition was forwarded to expel these traders and 
colonists, but the result was very disastrous to the Span- 
ish. After this the French built Fort Orleans on au 
island in the Missouri, above the mouth of the Osage. 
In military connection and about the same time Fort 
Chartres was built, as before mentioned. The wonder- 
ful changes in the bed and channels of the Mississippi are 
seen in the fact that Fort Chartres, originally on the 
bank of the river, was washed away and then rebuilt, 
and of stone, far inland. The encroaching river fol- 
lowed and is undermining the new fort. For ten years, 
ending about 1750, the French were active in establish- 
ing friendly relations with the Indians between the Al- 
leghanies and the Missouri, and from the heads of the 
Mississippi to Texas. This was a deep stroke of policy 
and involved vast labor. 

By all these explorations and encroachments the 
French crowded the Spanish to the south and west of 
the following line : From the mouth of the Sabine up 
that river to latitude thirty-two, then due north to the 
Red River and by it to longitude twenty-three ; thence 
north to the Arkansas and up it to latitude forty-two and 
on it west to the Pacific. This was the boundary, prac- 
tically, that the French forced on the Spanish, though 
it was not then very formally or definitely agreed to. 
Indeed, it was one of those singular treaty lines, some- 
times appearing in history, on which much has beeu 



12 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

settled, while they have never been run. The one in 
question has had a peculiar history. 

When, in 1 7 G2, France secretly conveyed her western 
portion of Louisiana to Spain she made this its limit on 
the southwest. But it was only descriptive, having 
never been run or traversed by either party. When 
Spain reconveyed the same to France in 1800, it was 
limited by the same boundaries and in description only. 
In 1803 France sold this territory, the Louisianas, to the 
United States, " with all its rights and appurtenances as 
fully and in the same manner as they have been acquired 
by the French Republic." To this extent, and on a line 
unrun, and not very definite, the United States were now 
bounded on Spanish territory, and for sixteen years 
there was negotiation, and at times unpleasant struggle, 
to locate and run the line. Then, when, in 1819, the 
United States purchased Florida, an article was inserted 
in the treaty restating this line, but it was drawn only by 
diplomats in sentences, and not by engineers on the 
ground. The treaty called for a survey, but various de- 
lays prevented the setting of metes and bounds, till we 
acquired New Mexico in 1848, when the line became 
unnecessary, because we became owners on both sides 
of it, and so it has never been run. It is a singular fact 
that this line of three august conferences and treaties, 
one war, and much diplomatic intrigue and correspond- 
ence was never anything more than imaginary and de- 
clared. 

We have thus grouped the facts, that it may be seen 
in summary how France crowded Spain on the south- 
west, and compelled a continuance of the shrinkage in 
her boastful claims on the New World. 

Now, it is important to notice that the old Spanish 



SPAIN ENTERS THE STRUGGLE AND FAILS. 13 

claim extended from Panama, on the Pacific, to Prince 
William's Sound ; and of course covered the Oregon of 
our narrative, that is, the Oregon, Washington Territory, 
Idaho, and British Columbia of to-day, up to 54° 40'. 
According to the decree of Pope Alexander VI., the 
Spanish had granted to them exclusive privileges in all 
lands and seas which they might discover in the Pacific. 
On this basis they founded the audacious claims of sov- 
ereignty over the American shores of the Pacific. 

When, therefore, the English, profiting by Cook's 
discoveries, that ended with his death in 1778, and by 
the enterprise of others, sought to open the fur, seal, 
whale, and other trafiic, on the northwest coast, the 
Spanish government regarded the attempt as an intru- 
sion, and in its anxiety as to the end sought by its 
rival, entered strong objections. This arrogant claim 
of Spain to all Pacific waters and coasts and islands near 
to our continent is well illustrated in the case of the 
American ship Columbia. In 1788 she left Boston for 
trade in the Pacific, was damaged, and put into Juan 
Fernandez for repairs, and having been refitted, was 
allowed by the Spanish authorities there to proceed. 
For this the Commandant was removed under severe re- 
buke, on the ground that every vessel found in seas be- 
yond Cape Horn, without Spanish license, was to be 
treated as an enemy, since no nation had a right to ter- 
ritory or trade that would require the doubling of that 
Cape. Russia was already on the northwest coast of 
America, and Spain sought to make Prince William's 
Sound the southern limit of Russia. This was in 1789. 

At this time " no settlement, factory, or other estab- 
lishment whatsoever had been founded or attempted, nor 
had any jurisdiction been exercised by the authorities or 



14 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

subjects of a civilized nation in any part of America 
bordering on the Pacific, between San Francisco and 
Prince William's Sound." ^ It is true that Spain led off 
in discoveries on those coasts, and afterward she had, 
jointly with. England, France, and Russia, landed here 
and there, and taken possession ceremonially. But it 
early came to an understanding among these nations 
that no such pageant could constitute possession. That 
could be proved and maintained only by habitations and 
residence. 

The issue between Spain and England as to sovereign- 
ty on the northwest coast was made at Nootka Sound in 
1789. Each nation then attempted to form a settlement 
there. The Spanish captured the English vessels, and 
this threw the case into diplomacy between the two 
courts. England informed the Spanish court that she 
could "not accede to the pretensions of absolute sov- 
ereignty, commerce and navigation" that were claimed, 
and secretly prepared to back her protest by two fleets. 
The Spanish government was informed that " British 
subjects have an indisputable right to the enjoyment of 
a free and uninterrupted navigation, commerce, and fish- 
ing, and to the possession of such establishments as they 
should form, with the consent of the natives of the 
country, not previously occupied by any of the European 
nations." The younger Pitt, then in his prime of power, 
and with all his father's hatred and contempt of Spain, 
shaped the policy that ended in the famous Nootka Treaty 
of 1790. 

The question opened so widely that France did not 
think it best to remain quiet ; and though she seemed to 
maintain neutrality she took steps, at once, to increase 
1 History of Oregon and Calif ornia^ by Hobert Greenhow, p. 187. 



SPAIN ENTERS THE STRUGGLE AND FAILS. 15 

her navy to unusual proportions. Under Louis XVI. 
Mirabeau led this policy, and, by a semblance, assumed 
to mediate between the two courts. The result was the 
Nootka Treaty, by which England gained her full com- 
mercial demands. Five years later Spain, for various 
reasons, informally and quietly, and without quitclaim- 
ing her rights, withdrew from Nootka Sound, and after- 
ward fixed the northern limit of her claims at the present 
northern boundary of California. When she withdrew 
thus to the southern limits of Oregon she could well be 
counted out as a competitor for the Oregon of our story, 
though she had owned it from 1763 to 1800. 

Here, therefore, we take leave of Spain in the grand 
game of kings for that magnificent prize in the north- 
west. But we cannot do it without reflecting on the 
weak ambition and papal folly that grasped for so much 
while it could hold so little. Spain once claimed from 
Panama, on the Atlantic side, to Newfoundland, and on 
the Pacific to Prince William's Sound. At this date in 
our narrative all her Atlantic claims were dwarfed to 
eastern Florida, and at this date of writing all her vast 
interior and Pacific claims have gone out of her hands. 

As we look back on this amazing collapse of the 
Spanish inflation in North America the view should not 
surprise us. With a few noble colonial leaders the mass 
of the colonists were of the lower grades, and many of 
them from prisons, asylums, and the streets. Any 
country would be benefited by the outgoing of such 
classes, or damaged by their incoming. ''After landing 
In the wilds of America they were more like " dumb, 
driven cattle " than like citizens. The Jesuitism that 
took charge of their education by no means crowded 
on them the printing-press and spelling-book ; and 



16 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

priestly hands held back the Bible, though in Latin, and 
religion was much embodied in rituals and ceremonials. 
There was nothing in such a colonial system to produce 
men and women who constitute and perpetuate society. 



CHAPTER III. 

FRANCE SELLS HER CLAIMS. 

France was only second to Spain in the extent of 
her inflated claims in the New World. The treaty of 
E-yswick conceded to her all the country whose waters 
flowed into the Atlantic, from the Penobscot north to 
Hudson Bay. This includes not only the basin of 
which that bay is the reservoir, but also the basin of 
the Great Lakes, emptying through the St. Lawrence. 
Down the western slope of the Hudson Bay basin there 
come the Red River waters of central Minnesota, and 
those of Lake Winnipeg, fed by the Saskatchewan and 
Assiniboin, that spring from the melting snows where 
the Rocky Mountains look down on the Pacific. So far 
west on the rim of that basin was the French claim 
conceded, in the old Dutch palace of Ryswick. There 
was also conceded to her all the great western valley 
which lies between the Alleghanies and the Rocky 
Mountains, and whose drainage runs by New Orleans, 
omitting so much as lies south of the thirty-third degree 
of latitude on the east of the Mississippi, and so much 
as feeds the head-springs of the Arkansas and territory 
south of it. This immense French domain in America 
would more than cover all the map of Europe. 

The peace of Ryswick was brief. Wars soon followed 
between the parties in both the Old World and the New, 
and matters soon came again to the council-table of 
2 



18 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

kings. This time it was in 1713, at Utrecht, another 
Dutch town, and the prominent parties present, by their 
ministers, were Anne, queen of Great Britain, and Louis 
XIV. of France. France, once so imperious, had been 
^ humbled by failure to absorb the Spanish in the French 
crown, and by the adverse issues of war in North Amer- 
ica. Moreover, Louis was now seventy-five years old, 
and the shadows of age were falling across his brilliant 
court of Versailles. He put his name to the Treaty of 
Utrecht, but not with the bold, iron hand that had throt- 
tled kings and pushed thrones aside. The signature is 
the unsteady scrawl of age, as when old men, nursed and 
pillowed up on the dying bed, sign their last will and 
testament. 

That signature gave back to Great Britain the Hud- 
son Bay basin, from rim to rim, Newfoundland, and 
Nova Scotia — the poetic Acadia. There and then, in 
the old halls of Utrecht, France began to give up her 
chances on the Pacific by yielding those immense re- 
gions on the Atlantic. The tide had turned, and now 
it went out as with the rapidity with which it is wont to 
leave her former Bay of Fundy. 

Struggles followed the concord at Utrecht, and they 
were between courts and cabinets, prime ministers and 
ambassadors, armies in Europe and armies in the new 
continent. The brilliant uniform of the European min- 
gled with the feathers and paint and scalp-lock of the 
Indian along the forests and rivers and lakes of our then 
border land. More and more the destinies of battle 
turned one way, till that fatal September day on the 
Plains of Abraham, at Quebec, 1759. That was the 
Waterloo for France in North America ; and in the set- 
tlement afterward, by the Treaty of Paris, 1763, she 



FRANCE SELLS HER CLAIMS. 19 

was humiliated to yield all her possessions east of the 
Mississippi. That is, she then lost the eastern slope of 
the Mississippi Valley, the Canadas, and New Brunswick. 
After much diplomatic delay — more than three years 

— while from time to time the hostile negotiators felt 
for their swords again, Great Britain allowed France to 
retain three little islands off the coast of Newfoundland 

— not the area of two Yankee townships — where she 
might build fishermen's huts and dry her nets. Only the 
assignment of St. Helena to Napoleon suggests so great 
a fall or equals so great a humiliation. 

About one hundred days before this painful transfer 
France secretly made over to Spain all her territorial 
claims on the west of the Mississippi. Under one of 
those terrible pressures of war, when sometimes a strong 
nation is no more capable of resistance than an iron ship 
in an ice-pack, she parted with that half of a grand em- 
pire. She feared, and probably foresaw, that Great 
Britain would finally take all, and so put this beyond 
the reach of her grasping victor. 

In her successive generations France never forgave 
herself for losing the ancient Louisiana. She chafed 
under the memories of the Plains of Abraham, and she 
watched to recover herself from a step, forced and inev- 
itable, in the fickle fortunes of war. All through and 
following our Revolution, while she was friendly, her 
leading statesmen were alert and hopeful for chances 
that would reinstate her in that valley. The secret ser- 
vice of Vergennes, the bold and almost defiant intrigues 
of Genet, and her gold freely used between Pittsburg 
and New Orleans as bribes to bring about secession, are 
evidences of her wishes and of her endeavors. 

Therefore, it agreed well with national ambition, a« 



20 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

well as with the gigantic schemes of Napoleon, when he 
recovered from Spain, in 1800, the western half of that 
ancient Louisiana. 

The king of Spain, who owned this part of old Louisi- 
ana, married his daughter to the poor Duke of Parma, 
and he was not so rich in territory as his wife was proud 
and ambitious. Adjoining their petty domain was the 
kingdom of Tuscany, owned by France. To please, 
therefore, his spirited daughter, now a duchess in the 
small Duchy of Parma, the king of Spain exchanged 
with Napoleon Louisiana for Tuscany, and then the 
Duchy of Parma and Tuscany were combined into the 
Kingdom of Etruria for the royal son-in-law and his 
royal wife. So, as in so many great matters, there was 
a woman in the case, and half an empire in America was 
sold off to buy for her a wedding present. 

Thus the long cherished ambition of France was real- 
ized and she again had in the New World more than St. 
Pierre and the Great and Little Miquelon — her three 
islands tethered off the coast of the Continent. It was 
the ambition of Napoleon to restore a grand New France 
in the recovered Louisiana. It was to be for France her 
empire of the West — the India of France, to balance 
the India of Great Britain. Its area and natural re- 
sources, and its openness to the commercial world, were 
commensurate with the daring wish and plans of Napo- 
leon. 

He framed a government for it, appointed a board of 
officers, and gathered an army and navy for its escort, 
and then waited a year to evade the watchful eye of 
England, and ship the whole to the mouth of the Mis- 
sissippi. But the mistress of the seas was too strong 
and too wary for him, and he did not dare to venture. 



FRANCE SELLS HER CLAIMS. 21 

Impatient of delay, suffering severe reverses and many 
anxieties, in the broadening wars of that most eventful 
period, and solicitous how the young France of the West 
might be able to keep her domains, and put on manly 
years, especially if old France shouLl come into advert^e 
emergencies, he sold the province to the United States. 
In the Old World trade Tuscany and Louisiana were 
reckoned equal, at one hundred million francs each, 
but we paid seventy-five millions — fifteen millions 
of dollars, including two and a half millions of French 
debt due to Americans which the United States assumed. 
It was with reference to this and earlier ownerships of 
Louisiana by France that De Tocqueville, in his " De- 
mocracy in America," made his lament — the old re- 
frain of La Belle France : " There was a time when we 
also might have created a French nation in the Amer- 
ican wilds, to counterbalance the influence of the English 
upon the destinies of the New World. France formerly 
possessed a territory in North America scarcely less ex- 
tensive than the whole of Europe. The three greatest 
rivers of that continent then flowed within her domin- 
ions. . . . Louisburg, Montmorenci, Duquesne, St. Louis, 
Vincennes, New Orleans, are words dear to France." 

For two and a half years that magnificent region was 
again nominally in the hands of its ancient owner, and 
for so long a time France was the claimant of Oregon 
under the old vSpanish title. As will appear by and by, 
the United States claimed Oreo;on under the old Franco- 
Spanish title, while Great Britain denied the validity ot 
it, in the final settlement of the Oregon question. Here, 
therefore, in our purchase of the Louisianas, France dis- 
appears from the list of competitors for that Pacific 
prize. Only three now hold the course of struggle, — 
Russia, England, and the United States. 



CHAPTER IV. 

RUSSIA DECLINES THE STRUGGLE. 

Peter the Great, shortly before his death in 1725, 
determined to look up the countries beyond the seas, 
that made his eastern boundaries. He knew that the 
Spanish and French and English had trading colonies 
in those regions, and he proposed to enter there as a 
rival, if not as an invader. His death came too soon for 
the execution of his plan, but Catharine, his widow and 
successor, attempted the enterprise, and so dispatched 
that distinguished navigator, Bering, the Dane, on a 
voyage of discovery, three years after Peter died. 
Bering established the fact that Asia and America are 
separated by the strait which now bears his name, and 
yet, strange to say, he twice passed through it without 
knowing it to be a strait, or that the American conti- 
nent was near to him. His success led to a second voy- 
age of discovery, 1741, in which the American shores 
were brought to light, and the name of St. Elias given 
to that eminent mountain. After this they ran about 
among the Aleutian Islands. At length they sought a 
return to Kamtschatka, and after head winds, sickness, 
and many casualties, they took to winter quarters on a 
small island eighty miles off that coast, where the vessel 
was afterward wrecked. Here the gallant and daring 
man made his grave with thirty of his men, and history 
has affixed his name to the island, as if a monument ; and 
indeed it is but a pile of granite. 



RUSSIA DECLINES THE STRUGGLE. 23 

The survivors of the unfortunate expedition carried 
home with them choice furs, and made large profits on 
their sale. This led to individual enterprises in those 
hard seas, and in 1766 to the organization of companies 
for the Russian fur trade. While, therefore, France had 
been, hastening through a series of reverses to quit North 
America, Russia was preparing to take it, and she was 
well established on the north-west coast by the time the 
United States were a nation. 

Two years before the century closed the Russian- 
American Fur Company was formed, with exclusive 
rights of trapping and trading for twenty years between 
latitude fifty-five and Bering Strait. The Company soon 
occupied the American coast for a thousand miles, up 
and down, and also the Aleutian archipelago, with their 
chief traders, sailors, and native helpers. 

Meanwhile New Englanders worked into the same 
region and lucrative trade, and ten years after the or- 
ganization of the Russian Company the court of St. 
Petersburg made formal remonstrance to the United 
States, that Americans were furnishing the natives of 
the northwest with firearms and ammunition. In the 
diplomatic correspondence which followed, our minister 
to that court, John Quincy Adams, drew out the fact 
that this Russian Company set up claims to the entire 
coast and islands between Bering Strait and the mouth 
of the Columbia, and at the same time was extending its 
trade and monopoly down the coast. In 1812 the Rus- 
sians obtained permission of the Spanish governor of 
California to found a trading post at Bodega Bay, a little 
north of San Francisco. Their ostensible object and 
real permission were to lay in beef there, from the wild 
cattle, for their northern posts and traders. In two or 



24 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

three years they had so multiplied and fortified them- 
selves, that the authorities of California remonstrated, 
and finally ordered them to leave, when the Russians 
coolly replied that they had concluded to remain. They 
did so, and in 1820 established another fortified trading 
house about forty miles farther north. 

In the following year, the Russian government claimed, 
by public decree, all the northwest coast and islands 
north of latitude fifty -one, and down the Asiatic coast as 
low as forty-five degrees and fifty minutes, and forbade 
all foreigners to come within one hundred miles of the 
coasts, except in cases of extremity. To this bold claim 
our Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, objected 
most strenuously, as infringing on the usages and im- 
memorial rights of Americans, and he denied, most em- 
phatically, that Russia had any just claim on that coast 
south of the fifty-fifth degree. As Russia had claims 
on both the American and Asiatic coasts she claimed the 
islands between as in a close sea. Mr. Adams replied 
to Chevalier de Poletica, the Russian minister, that an 
ocean four thousand miles wide could hardly be regarded 
as a " close sea," and that the Americans would continue 
to exercise their ancient privileges in those northern 
waters. There the correspondence closed. 

Great Britain made similar protestations. The Amer- 
ican protests were emphasized in 1 823, by the proclama- 
tion of the Monroe doctrine, so called. The substance 
of this noted doctrine was in these words : " That the 
American Continents, by the free and independent con- 
dition which they have assumed and maintain, are hence- 
forth not to be considered as subjects for colonization 
by any European power." 

After much correspondence it was agreed between 



RUSSIA DECLINES THE STRUGGLE. 25 

Russia and the United States, in 1824, that the United 
States should make no new claims north of 54° 40', and 
the Russians none south of it. Russia also made a sim- 
ilar agreement with Great Britain the next year, and 
the two were to be binding for ten years, but with the 
privilege of continued navigation and trade where they 
had been previously enjoyed. When the ten years ex- 
pired Russia served notice on the United States and 
Great Britain of the discontinuance of their naviofation 
and trade north of the agreed line of 54° 40'. 

A compromise was effected between Russia and Great 
Britain by a lease from Russia to the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany of the coast and margin from 54° 40' to Cape Spen- 
ser, near 58° — that narrow strip of Alaska which now 
lies between British Columbia and the Pacific. With 
the United States matters were finally adjusted to mu- 
tual satisfaction. 

But England was ambitious to hold Oregon and Cali- 
fornia ; and therefore those two Russian colonies in the 
latter were an annoyance and a check to her. The Rus- 
sians had posted themselves strongly at Bodega, having 
built a stockade, with block-houses, the two towers of 
which mounted three guns each. It had only one gate, 
and this was protected by a brass nine-pounder. In 
1836 it had three hundred men, besides sixty or more 
Kodiack Indians.-"- It will be noticed that, after the loose 
and adventurous manner of those times, the Russians were 
in possession both north and south of the Oregon of our 
narrative. Of course, they were liable to gain a footing 
in it, by trade with the natives, and by agriculture. 
They had intimated to the United States that they had 

1 Sir Ed-ward Belcher's Voyages Round the World, 1836-42, vol. 
i. 313-15. 



26 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

no rights in California, while they notified the Mexican 
government that they had come to stay. The English 
accused the Russians of infringing treaty obligations by 
making and holding settlements south of 54° 40', and 
asked Mexico to expel them. Mexico was willing but 
not able, and therefore asked for the kindly offices of 
the United States in the matter. At our request Rus- 
sia withdrew from California, and relinquished all claims 
and ambitions south of 54° 40'. Russia, therefore, was 
counted out from among the competitors for Oregon. 

We started in our story with five European powers, 
which might be regarded as fairly competitors for Ore- 
gon. We have seen them drop out, one by one, as in 
some exciting boat-race. Now one near the prize, vig- 
orous, and well posted on both sides of it, withdraws. 
Only two remain for us to watch. 



CHAPTER V. 

ENGLISH EXPLORATIONS AND AMBITIONS. 

In the last chapter we carried one thread of our narra- 
tive ahead of time, in order to dispose of one of the 
parties in the struggle — the Russians. Now we must re- 
turn and bring up the English to the point where we 
just now left them, as the only competitor with the 
United States for Oregon. 

In colony times Spain, France, and Great Britain, 
each in turn, looked toward the Mississippi Valley, as a 
new seat of empire. Soon after the eastern half had 
been conveyed to Great Britain, after her victory of 
immeasurable importance on the Plains of Abraham, 
she began to explore her new possessions. Leading 
and prominent among the explorers was Jonathan Car- 
ver, a hard soldier in the French and Indian wars, that 
terminated at Quebec, a rugged and daring pioneer, 
with a passion for forest life and all its wild adventures 
and thrilling incidents. In the late wars he had become 
inured to hardship, and he was enamored of the fascina- 
tions that lie along an unexplored border of wilderness. 
Carver left Boston in 1766, under the geographical delu- 
sion of the day, that North America was an archipelago, 
and that a sailing passage could be found, extending 
through to the Pacific. The leading purpose with him in 
his tour was to discover those mythical and always reced- 
ing " Straits of Anian," as tlie channel was called. His 



28 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

head was fired with the vision of " the discovery of a 
northwest passage, or a communication between Hud- 
son Bay and the Pacific Ocean — an event so desirable 
and which has been so often sought for, but without suc- 
cess." He returned in two years, having explored no 
farther than the present limits of Wisconsin, Iowa, and 
Minnesota. He claimed that he was the first white man, 
after Hennepin, the French missionary, to explore the 
Mississippi, as far up as the falls of St. Anthony. He 
prophesied well of the region as " a country that prom- 
ises in some future period to be an inexhaustible source of 
riches to the people who shall be so fortunate as to possess 
it." He thus anticipated Secretary Seward, by about a 
century, in his prophecy in 1860, in his speech at St. 
Paul ; " I now believe that the ultimate, last seat of gov- 
ernment on this great continent will be found somewhere 
within a circle or radius not very far from the spot on 
which I stand, at the head of navigation on the Mississippi 
river." All this reads well of wheat fields and empire 
states, but the fancy is rich and very enjoyable, that sees 
Carver's merchantmen under full sail makina^ their cross- 
cut through these prairies from China to New England. 
The Indians gave him much information concerning 
precious metals in the " Shining Mountains," as they 
called the Black Hills ; and Carver is led to say that 
"probably in future ages they may be found to contain 
more riches in their bowels than those of Indostan and 
Malabar, or than are produced on the golden coast of 
Guinea; nor will I except even the Peruvian mines." 
He made many trials to get farther west, and when he 
asked the Indians to guide him to these mountains, they 
replied that white men could not enter them and live. 
So sadly true of poor General Custer and his men ! 



ENGLISH EXPLORATIONS AND AMBITIONS. 29 

Carver, in his narrative, drew somewhat from his ob- 
servations, but much from his memory of French and 
fanciful narrators. His book was published in London, 
and had its effect, both in England and in this country ; 
it fascinated Great Britain with the value of her con- 
quest, and stimulated new explorations.-^ 

At this time the Hudson Bay Company had stations 
on that inland sea, and it had some belief, but more 
doubt, of the existence of navigable waters between 
Hudson Bay and the Pacific. Rumors had also reached 
the Company of a metal river to the west of the Bay. 
They therefore commissioned Samuel Hearne, one of 
their agents, to explore from the western shores of the 
Bay towards the Pacific, for the rumored channel and 
river. This was the year following the return of Car- 
ver. Hearne made three of these excursions into the 
northwest, west, and southwest — tours of a thousand 
miles each. He discovered Great Slave Lake, and iden- 
tified Metal River as the Coppermine, which he traced 
to its mouth. So highly did the Lords Commissioners of 
the British Admiralty esteem his discoveries, that thev 
kept them secret, as exceedingly important, from his re- 
turn in 1772 to 1795. 

Of course English statesmen, capitalists, and navigators 
were greatly interested in northern North America by 
hese discoveries. Under this stimulus Cook was com- 
missioned in 1776 to explore the north-west coast, and 
look for any water openings inland that might lead to 
Hudson Bay and, with the consent of the natives, or 
in the absence of any inhabitants, take possession for 
Great Britain of any country not already claimed by 

1 Travels Throughout the Interior Parts of North America, 1766-8. 
B}^ Jonathan Carver. 



30 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

European powers. The plan was to make his discover- 
ies by sea meet and close in with those of Hearne by 
land. Bnt the English Admiralty were then deeply ig- 
norant of the vast spaces and distances in this country, 
as many are, most amusingly, to-day. Hearne may well 
have made those extensive tours, and yet Cook, on the 
Pacific coast, not be within a thousand miles of the track 
of the inland explorer. 

Thus early after their expulsion of the French from 
the northern portion of the Continent the English closed 
in on it, by extending their line of ti-ading posts, or 
" factories," from Hudson Bay and the Canadas west- 
ward. The tragic death of Cook at the Sandwich Is- 
lands, in the third year of his enterprise, terminated, for 
the present, the extension of English discoveries and 
possessions on the north-west coast. Meanwhile the 
English government was in a desperate struggle to hold 
her colonies on the Atlantic, and had little leisure or 
surplus force, or perhaps heart, to plant new ones on 
the Pacific, where they might repeat rebellion. Yet 
she had obtained intimations enough of the value of the 
region beyond the Great Lakes, and around the sources 
of the Mississippi and Missouri, to make her ardent and 
persistent for its possession. 

The French had furnished much information of that 
wild interior. It might be difficult to tell, sometimes, 
whether the religious zeal of the Jesuit, or the mercan- 
tile spirit of the trader, led those earliest expeditions into 
unexplored lands : but one thing was sure and fortunate, 
the religious partners, under convoy of the voyageurs, 
made good record of what they saw, and they were good 
observers as well as recorders. Of course this infor- 
mation spread by rumor, if not by manuscript and print, 
and English enterprise used it. 



ENGLISH EXPLORATIONS AND AMBITIONS. 31 

There was also a most valuable territory between the 
Ohio, the Mississippi, and the Lakes, which Great Britain 
was quite unwilling to yield after the wager of battle 
went against her, conclusively, at Yorktown. She re- 
luctantly conceded independence to the young republic, 
but first insisted that its domain should not extend be- 
yond the Ohio and its head waters. During the nego- 
tiations for the treaty of peace, the British Commission- 
er, Oswald, pressed his demands, long and arbitrarily, 
for this restricting boundary. The American Commis- 
sioners, Franklin, Adams, and Jay, resisted, and claimed 
that, as the Colonies, when dependent, had been accus- 
tomed to have territorial sovereignty west to the Mis- 
sissippi and north to the Great Lakes, they should have 
the same domain by their acknowledged independence. 
That grand section seemed too much for the mother 
country to yield, but the commissioners were firm, and it 
was finally agreed that the dividing line should be a cen- 
tral one, from a certain point, up the St. Lawrence, and 
through to the Great Lakes, and the smaller ones, to the 
Lake of the Woods, and thence to the head of the Missis- 
sippi, and down it to the Spanish possessions. 

This was a great bar to the extension of English su- 
premacy westward, and a sad rebuff to its ambition in that 
direction. The report of Carver on the northwest — 
published in London — was fresh and tantalizing, and 
this treaty boundary would not only give over a part of 
that tempting region to the young republic, but place 
the republic directly before the grand remainder, with 
an open door between, and no resident keepers. 

The bar and the rebuff seemed to beget in Great Brit- 
ain an unfriendliness, if not a lack of good faith, for she 
persisted in holding the posts of Oswego, Niagara, and 



32 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

Detroit, and four more, that were within our lines, for 
ten years after she signed the treaty that gave them up. 
They stood within the territory that Oswald contended 
for, and reluctantly yielded ; and appearances were that 
the English were waiting for some mishap to the repub- 
lic, for some contingency of war, or for some adroit di- 
plomacy that would enable her to recover that region to 
the crown. 

The Indian wars that harrassed the border after the 
Revolution, and nearly to the end of the century, were 
known to have been instio^ated by Encrlish agents and 
emissaries in the retained posts, and on the Canadian 
borders. The object, as confessed by both Indian and 
Englishman, was to keep emigration from the States 
from passing beyond the Ohio. These agents encouraged 
the notion in the Indian mind, that the proper and per- 
manent boundary between the whites and the Indians 
was the Ohio, as laid down in 1768 by Sir William John- 
son, in the treaty of Fort Stanwix. It was not strange 
that England should be reluctant to yield the richer 
southern country, hut by the final partition it only re- 
mained for her to make the most of her Canadas and the 
snow lands beyond, and press a broader and deeper ex- 
tension of them into the dim and mysterious west — 
the great fur land of America. "With the frozen north 
on one side and the United States on the other, the only 
chance for English growth in America was to lengthen 
her dominion into the west, and make it a long and very 
narrow parallelogram. 

Into this wild region of woodland, river, and lake, and 
of treeless wolds, heaths, and downs, like South Ameri- 
can pampas, or the steppes of Asiatic tablelands, we 
must now plunge, if we would keep in hand the converg- 
ing threads of our narrative in their western leading. 



je. 






CHAPTER VI. 

THE HUDSON BAY COMPANY. 

The Hudson Bay Company was chartered by Charles 
11. on the 16th of May, 1670. The original corporators 
were eighteen, headed by Prince Rupert, and hence the 
old name of Rupert's Land once given to that region. 
The first object of the Company, as named in the charter 
was, " the discovery of a new passage into the South Sea " 
— the Pacific Ocean. During its first century the Com- 
pany had done something in the line of geographical 
discoveries in the northwestern parts of North America, 
and were growing hopeless of an inland channel to the 
Pacific. 

As early as 1778 the celebrated Frobisher and others 
had established a trading-post or " factory " on Lake 
Athabasca, about twelve hundred miles from Lake Su- 
perior. Ten years later it was abandoned and Fort 
Chipewayan was built as its substitute, on the southwest 
shore of the same water. From this fort Sir Alexander 
Mackenzie made an expedition to the Arctic and back, 
following the river which now bears his name. This was 
in the warm season of 1789, and was accomplished in 
one hundred and two days. Three years later, and in 
the autumn, he started with a purpose to explore a route 
to the South Sea, the Pacific. From Lake Athabasca 
he went up Peace River, to its head in the Rocky 
Mountains. In that dreary solitude, so far from this 
3 



34 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

live and warm world, he made his winter quarters, 
where he lay with his ten men, snow-bound, till May. 
How that great fur-trader must have revelled in some 
of those mountain scenes ! On one occasion he says : 
" In some places the beavers had cut down several acres 
of large poplars." A few Indians were found on the 
line of travel. " They had heard, indeed, of white men, 
but this was the first time that they had ever seen a 
human being of a complexion different from their own." 
We could hope that these first white men did not begin 
to " civilize " them as they did the poor natives whom 
they found on the Mackenzie four years before. " We 
made them smoke, though it was evident that they did 
not know the use of tobacco. We likewise supplied them 
with grog, but I am disposed to think that they accepted 
our civilities rather from fear than inclination." 

A memorable and unprecedented sight met their eyes 
in June of this year, 1793. They came to the divide, 
and saw the waters separating, some for the Atlantic 
and some for the Pacific. Never before had white men 
seen streams running from the crown of the Rocky 
Mountains to the great western ocean. In July they 
came in sight of the sea, and were soon on its shores. 
There, on a bold rock looking off toward Asia, this dar- 
ing explorer painted in vermilion these words : " Alex- 
ander Mackenzie, from Canada by land, the twenty- 
second of July, one thousand seven hundred and ninety- 
three." This was the first expedition of white men 
across the continent to the Pacific Ocean. If we con- 
nect this inscription, in a historical comprehensiveness, 
with explorations for the Straits of Anian, and with the 
British fur trade in North America, and with the discus- 
sions and conclusion of the Oregon question, it will be 



THE HUDSON BAY COMPANY. 35 

found that few sentences written in America were more 
significant and full of consequence, and worthy to be 
put in rock.^ 

The dates of these expeditions of Mackenzie are sig- 
nificant. We have noticed that the treaty closing the 
Revolution left to the English only the wild countries 
north of the United States. This was in 1783. Now 
within ten years they had pressed exploration and oc- 
cupation to the Pacific in the latitude of their Atlantic 
possessions. 

This Mackenzie was a man of remarkable power, and 
he had few equals, if even one, in shaping British inter- 
ests in North America to their highest attainment. He 
soon foresaw, in his Pacific and Arctic expeditions, what 
advantages could be made to come from them, and he 
at once recommended the union of the Hudson Bay 
and Northwest fur companies — for a long time fierce 
and even bloody rivals — a line of commerce between 
Canada and the Pacific, overland, and a permit from 
the East India Company for trade direct between both 
India and China and the northwest coast of America. 
That trade, he suggests, is now ^' left to the adventurers 
of the United States, acting without regularity or capital, 
or the desire of conciliating future confidence, and look- 
ing only to the interest of the moment." These sugges- 

1 In the return of the Lewis and Clark expedition, the Clark divis- 
ion came down the Yellowstone. Twentj'- miles or so above the 
mouth of the Big Horn stands a mass of yellow sandsto-^e an acre in 
base and four hundred feet high, called Pompej^'s Pillar. About half 
way up is cut this inscription : — 

WM. CLARK, 
July 25, 1806. 
It has more to do with the Republic than Mackenzie's, and is closely 
associated with the signatures on the Declaration of Independence. 



36 OREGON t THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

tioDs were generally and promptly adopted by the Eng- 
lish government and by the Hudson Bay Company. 

The point reached by Mackenzie on the Pacific is 
within the present limits of British Columbia on that 
coast (53° 21'), and it was the first real, though unde- 
signed step toward the occupation of Oregon by Great 
Britain. That government was feeling its way, daring- 
ly and blindly, for all territory it might obtain, and, in 
1793, came thus near the outlying region which after- 
wards became the coveted prize of our narrative. 

The Hudson Bay Company was the most formidable 
obstacle which lay between the United States and the 
final confirmation of her right to Oregon. It contested, 
persistently, every advance of the Republic in that direc- 
tion, and it was the undelegated agent and very embodi- 
ment of Great Britain in North America. It will, there- 
fore, aid much to make a brief survey of this Company. 

Its two objects, as set forth in its charter, were " for 
the discovery of a new passage into the South Sea, and 
for the finding of some trade for furs, minerals, and 
other considerable commodities." It may well be sus- 
pected that the first was the face and the second the 
soul of the charter, which grants to the Company the 
exclusive right of the " trade and commerce of all those 
seas, straits, and bays, rivers, lakes, creeks, and sounds, 
in whatsoever latitude they shall be, that lie within the 
entrance of the straits commonly called Hudson Straits," 
of all lands bordering them not under any other civilized 
government. This covered all territory within that im- 
mense basin from rim to rim, one edge dipping into the 
Atlantic and the other looking into the Pacific. Through 
this vast extent the Company was made, for *' all time 
hereafter, capable in law, to have, purchase, receive, 



THE HUDSON BAY COMPANY. 37 

possess, enjoy, and retain lands, rents, privileges, liber- 
ties, jurisdiction, franchise, and hereditaments of what 
kind, nature, or quality soever they be, to them and 
their successors." The company held that region as a 
man holds his farm, or as the great bulk of real estate 
in England is now held. They could legislate over and 
govern it, bound only by the tenor and spirit of English 
law, and make war and peace within it ; and all persons 
outside the Company could be forbidden to " visit, haunt, 
frequent, trade, traffic, or adventure " therein. For all 
this, and as a confession of allegiance to the crown as a 
dependent colony and province, they were to pay an- 
nually as rent " two elks and two black beavers." Cheap 
rent that, especially since the king or his agent must col- 
lect it on the ground of the Company. To dwell in the 
territory or even to go across it would be as really a tres- 
pass as if it were done on the lawn of a private gentle- 
man in Middlesex county, England. 

Such were the chartered rights of a monopoly that 
growing bolder and more grasping became at last conti- 
nental in sweep, irresistible in power, and inexorable in 
spirit. In 1821 the crown granted to this and the 
Northwest Company united, and for a term of twenty- 
one years, the exclusive right to trade with all Indians 
in British North America, north and west of the United 
States, and not included in the first charter. This grant- 
ed only trade, not ownership in the soil. Thus, while 
the chartered territory was imperial, it grew, by granted 
monopoly of trade, to be continental. By degrees the 
trappers and traders went over the rim of the Hudson 
basin, till they reached the Arctic seas along the outlets 
of the Coppermine and the Mackenzie. They set beaver 
traps on the Yukon and Eraser rivers, around the Ath- 



38 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

abasca, Slave, and Bear Lakes, and on the heads of the 
Columbia. From the adjacent Pacific shores they lined 
their treasury with the soft coats of the fur seal and the 
sea-otter. They were the pioneers of this traffic, and 
pressed this monopoly of fur on the sources, not only of 
the Mississippi and Missouri, but down into the Salt 
Lake basin of modern Utah. What minor and rival 
companies stood in the way they bought in, or crushed 
by underselling to the Indians. Individual enterprise 
in the fur trade, from Newfoundland to Vancouver, and 
from the head of the Yellowstone to the mouths of the 
Mackenzie, was at their mercy. They practically con- 
trolled the introduction of supplies and the outgoing of 
furs and peltries from all the immense region between 
those four points. 

Within the Canadas and the other Provinces they 
held the Indian and the European equally at bay, while 
within all this vast unorganized wilderness, their hand 
over red and white man was absolute. At first the Com- 
pany could govern as it pleased, and was autocratic and 
irresponsible. By additional legislation in 1803, the 
civil and criminal government of the Canadas was made 
to follow the Company into lands outside their first 
charter commonly called Indian Countries. The Gov- 
ernor of Lower Canada had the appointing power of of- 
ficials within those countries. But he did not send in 
special men ; he appointed those connected with the 
Company and on the ground. The Company, therefore, 
had the administration in those outside districts in its own 
hands. Thus the commercial life of the Canadas was so 
dependent on the Hudson Bay Company that the gov- 
ernment could be counted on to promote the wishes of 
the Company. In brief, the government of British 



THE HUDSON BAY COMPANY. 39 

America was practically the Hudson Bay Company, 
and for all the privilege and monopoly which it enjoyed 
without seeming to demand it, there was an annual pay- 
ment if called for of " two elks and two black beavers." 

This Company thus became a powerful organization. 
It had no rival to share the field, or waste the profits in 
litigation, or in bloody feuds beyond the region of law. 
It extended its lines, multiplied its pos-ts and agents, sys- 
tematized communication through the immense hunting 
grounds, economized time and funds by increased ex- 
pedition, made many of its factories really fortifications, 
and so put the whole northern interior under British 
rule, and yet without a soldier. Rivers, lakes, mount- 
ains, and prairies were covered by its agents and trap- 
pers. Tlie white and the red man were on most friendly 
terms, and the birch canoe and the pirogue were seen 
carrying, in mixed company, both races, and, what was 
more, their mixed progeny. 

The extent of territory under this Company seems 
almost fabulous. It was one-third larger than all 
Europe ; it was larger than the United States of to-day, 
Alaska included, by half a million of square miles. 
From the American headquarters at Montreal to the 
post on Vancouver was a distance of twenty-five hun- 
dred miles ; to Fort Selkirk on the Yukon, or to the one 
on Great Bear Lake, it was three thousand miles, and it 
was still farther to the rich fur seal and sea-otter on the 
tide waters of the Mackenzie. James Bay and the Red 
River at Winnipeg seem near to Montreal in compari- 
son. These distances would compare well with air-line 
routes from Washington to Dublin, or Gibraltar, or 
Quito. This power, so extensive and monopolizing the 
American side of the British throne — was reaching out 
and preparing to enfold Oregon. 



40 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

One contemplates this power with awe and fear, when 
he regards the even motion and solemn silence and un- 
varying sameness with which it has done its work 
through that dreary animal country. It has been said 
that a hundred years has not changed its bills of goods 
ordered from London. The Company wants the^same 
muskrat and beaver and seal ; the Indian hunter, un- 
improved, and the half-breed European, deteriorating, 
want the same cotton goods, and flint-lock guns, and to- 
bacco and gew-gaws. 

To-day, as a hundred years ago, the dog-sledge runs 
out from Winnipeg for its solitary drive of five hundred, 
or two thousand, or even three thousand miles. It glides, 
silent as a spectre, over those snow-fields and through 
the solemn, still forests, painfully wanting in animal life. 
Fifty, seventy, an hundred days it speeds along, and as 
many nights it camps without fire, and looks up to the 
same cold stars. At the intervening posts the sledge 
makes a pause, as a ship, having rounded Cape Horn, 
heaves to before some lone Pacific island. It is the same 
at the trader's hut or factory as when the sledge-man's 
grandfather drove up, the same dogs, the same half- 
breeds or voyageurs to welcome him, the same foul, 
lounging Indians, and the same mink-skin in exchange 
for the same trinket. The fur animal and its purchaser 
and hunter, as the landscape, seem to be alike under 
the same immutable, unprogressive law of nature ; — 

"Aland where all things always seemed the same," 

as among the lotus-eaters. Human progress and Indian 
civilization have made scarcely more improvement than 
that central, silent partner iu the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany — the beaver. 



THE HUDSON BAY COMPANY. 41 

It is said, with an accusing comparison, that the Eng- 
lish get along more peacefully than the Americans in 
their Indian policy. Let the Jamestown colony leave 
the Indians in perpetual quiet in their wigwams up the 
James, and the Pilgrims their savage and pagan neigh- 
bors back of Plymouth woods ; pay them in finery and 
cheap fabrics for tending steel-traps ; and give their em- 
igrating sons to their tawny daughters, and you will have 
no troublesome Indian question, and — no United States 
of America. England has obtained peace in her Indian 
territories, and what else ? Splendid dividends in Hud- 
son Bay Company stock. The same wants and articles 
of exchange on both sides at the end of a century, never 
rising to the demand and supply of a plough as an arti- 
cle of usual shipment and use. 

One feels toward the power of this Company, moving 
thus with evenness and immutability through a hundred 
years, much as one does toward a law of nature. At 
Fort Selkirk, for example, the fifty-two numbers of the 
weekly London " Times " came in on the last sledge ar- 
rival. The first number is already three years old, by its 
tedious voyage from the Thames. Now one number only 
a week is read that the lone trader there may have fresh 
news weekly till the next annual dog-mail arrives, and 
each successive number is three years behind time when 
opened ! In this day of steamers and telegraphs and 
telephones, does it seem possible that any human, white 
habitation can be so outside of the geography and chron- 
ology of this world ? 

The goods of the Company, packed and shipped in 
Fenchurch Street, leave London, and at the end of the 
third year they are delivered at Fort Confidence on 
Great Bear Lake, or at any other extreme factory of 



42 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

the Company ; and at the end of three years more the 
return furs go up the Thames and into Fenchurch Street 
again. So in cycles of six years, and from age to age, 
like a planet, the shares in the Hudson Bay Company 
make their orbit and dividends. A run of three months 
and the London ship drops anchor in Hudson Bay. 
" For one year," says Butler, in his *• Great Lone Land," 
" the stores that she has brought in lie in the warehouse 
of York Factory; twelve months later they reach Red 
River ; twelve months later they reach Fort Simpson on 
the Mackenzie." 

The original stock of this Company was 850,820. In 
fifty years it was tripled twice by protits only, and went 
up to 84:0 7,380, while not one new dollar was paid in. 
In 1821 the Company absorbed the North-west Company 
of Montreal, on a basis of value equal to its own. The 
consolidated stock then was 81,916,000, of which 81,- 
780,866 was from protits. Yet, meanwhile, there had 
been an annual payment of ten per cent, to stockholders. 
In 1836 one of the Company's ships left Fort Greorge 
for London, with a cargo of furs valued at 8380,000.^ 

A further illustration of this rapid increase in value 
should be mentioned here. Prior to 1837 men from 
the United States had begun to promote agriculture in 
Oregon by the planting of colonies. To offset this move- 
ment and hold the territory by colonies of its own, the 
Company, with its surplus funds, organized and put into 
operation the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, as 
another department of their work. When the English 
government, in 1846, conceded the claims of the United 
States to Oregon, property of the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany was found within Oregon for which that Company 
claimed 84,990,036.67. The lands, buildings, and im- 

1 A History of Oregon. 1S70. By W. H. Gray. pp. 6S, 69, 83. 



THE HUDSON BAY COMPANY. 43 

provements, generally, of this Paget Sound Company, 
made a large item in the total amount claimed as dam- 
ages. To such an extent had this company of Hudson 
Bay traders grown in territory, government, business, 
capital, dividends, and presumed damages, when called 
on to retire from their trespass in Oregon. In view 
of such a competitor it is surprising that the United 
States should have succeeded in recovering its orio-inal 
and long alienated rights in that country. Nor would 
it have succeeded but for its hardy frontiersmen. Our 
vast border of wild land has furnished, and is still fur- 
nishing, a class of people peculiar to ourselves. They 
disappear beyond the line of cabins and plowed fields 
and courts and locks to be a community and a law 
unto themselves. The constitution and statutes and 
by-laws to which they own allegiance are in their rifle 
and revolver and saddle. Organized law and order 
follow tardily under the flag, and much more tardily 
the Bible and the spelling-book of benevolent societies. 
While indispensable to our magnificent growth in set- 
tlements and American institutions, they are neglected, 
as beyond reach, and unworthy of attention, and a 
hopeless class. While we succeed, thousarids of miles 
off, in teaching cannibals to prefer beef, we reproach 
these Americans three generations from a New England 
or any other school-house for being rough and lawless 
and unchristian. 

One cannot but admire the foresight, compass, policy, 
and ability with which those English fur-traders moved 
to gain possession, and then keep in wilderness for fur- 
breeding, so much of North America. Their agents 
gained a kind of ubiquity, wherever there could be 
foimd the beaver, the land and sea otter, the fisher and 



44 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

mink, the muskrat, wolf, wolverine, and the many- 
foxes of commerce, the sable, raccoon, and rabbit, the 
black, brown, and grizzly bear, and the lumbering buf- 
falo. The sale of rabbit skins in London alone in one 
year was ordinarily thirteen hundred thousand. 

For these fur-bearing animals the hunters of this Com- 
pany were almost everywhere in the wild half of North 
America. One could seldom travel long and far without 
crossing their trail or springing their steel-traps. Their 
birch was on the lake, or headed up to it, silent and 
graceful as the wild-duck ; and around and over those 
swampy acres flowed by the beaver-dam, they glided 
stealthily. In that sunny nook, far up in the Rockies, 
where the grass is last to go and first to come, and in more 
north-western regions never fails, one may see the smoke 
curling up cliffs and blackening the snows around their 
cosy huts. Where wide-awake Omaha and Council Bluffs 
now bridge the Missouri, they were, as to-day they are 
in the perpetual verdure of Vancouver. They are at 
Fort McPherson and the mouths of the Mackenzie, 
where icebergs come drifting in, perhaps across the track 
of the lost Franklin, and they are basking, too, in a 
six weeks' summer on the upper Yukon, after a pack of 
ten months in snow and ice. When Lewis and Clark 
were going through our new purchase to examine it, and 
were fifteen hundred miles up the Missouri, they found 
a McCraken of this Company trading with the Indians. 
After they had gone into winter quarters in December, 
1804, among the Mandaus, one Henderson visited them. 
He had a Hudson Bay trading-post eight days north. 
It was as if that Company had picketed all the wild in- 
terior, and this watchful sentinel had challenged the 
advance of intruders. 



THE HUDSON BAY COMPANY. 45 

Travelers tell us of an oppressive, painful silence 
through all that weird northland. Quadruped life, and 
the scanty little that there is of bird life is not vocal, 
much less musical. This Company has partaken of the 
silence of its domain. It makes but little noise for so 
great an organization. It says but few things and only 
the necessary ones, and even those with an obscurity 
often, that only the interested and initiated understand. 
The statements of its works and results are mostly in 
the passive voice. 

It may be well to note here how far the Hudson Bay 
Company hindered discoveries in North America. Ac- 
cording to its charter its first object was " the discovery 
of a new passage into the South Sea," but the Company 
put various hindrances in the way of such enterprises, 
as if success in this line would open a highway through 
their monopoly, or plant rivals on their border. 

In his history of Arctic Voyages Sir John Barrow 
says that when the Company came into a prosperous 
state of affairs " the north-west passage seems to have 
been entirely forgotten, not only by the adventurers who 
had obtained their exclusive charter under this pretext, 
but also by the nation at large ; at least nothing more ap- 
pears to have been heard on the subject for more than 
half a century." 

When, in 1719, Mr. Knight, its governor, proposed 
that two vessels be sent to look up a rumored copper 
mine at the mouth of a river on the Arctic, the Company 
refused the proposal. In 1741 one Dobbs secured such 
an expedition from the Company, and yet they showed 
such indifference and even hostility to it that he says in 
his narrative : ' The Company avoid all they can mak- 
ing discoveries to the northward of Churchill, or extend- 



46 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

ing their trade that way, for fear they should discover a 
passage to the western ocean of America, and tempt by 
that means the rest of the English merchants to lay open 
their trade." Commenting on this passage, Sir John 
says : " They not only discouraged all attempts at northern 
discovery, but withheld what little information came to 
their knowledge." The next year Captain Middleton 
was commissioned by the Lords of the Admiralty to ex- 
plore the northern and western waters of Hudson Bay, 
for any connection with the Arctic. He was openly ac- 
cused of taking a bribe of five thousand pounds from the 
Company to make his expedition a failure, as it was. 
Then the government, as if struggling against the Com- 
pany, offered a reward of twenty thousand pounds to 
any party who would make a success of it. When, in 
1746, an exploring party were aground in the vicinity 
of Fort York, the Governor of the Company cut down 
the beacon, that the wreck might be made sure. In 
1769 the Company, to keep up appearances, and the let- 
ter of their charter, sent one of their number, Mr. Hearne, 
overland, with a party to discover a rumored copper 
mine. He went out over twelve hundred miles, and yet 
made but one observation to fix latitude, and added but 
a trifle to the knowledge of those northern regions, 
though he went as far as the Coppermine River. Twenty 
years later they sent Mackenzie to the same vicinity, 
and he brought back even less information. Though 
the river seemed to have a tide he did not even taste the 
water to see whether it were salt and he near the sea. 
In 1790 a Mr. Duncan was sent out by the Governor to 
make explorations in a certain vessel of the Company. 
But when he arrived at the post the men there pretend- 
ed that the vessel was unseaworthy, and he gave up the 



THE HUDSON BAY COMPANY. 47 

expedition, though they used the vessel for twenty years 
afterward. When he was carrying out his plan the 
next year his crew mutinied, encouraged by his first of- 
ficer, who was a servant of the Company. 

Thus it appears that the Hudson Bay Company ob- 
structed the progress of geographical and general dis- 
covery in North America ; and we shall see that it did 
the same as to the increase of English commerce and 
the growth of English settlements and civilization in the 
same vast regions. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ENGLISH MONOPOLY OF THE FRONTIER. 

It required a second treaty, 1794, to bring the Eng- 
lish to a surrender of the seven military posts within the 
United States, which they agreed to surrender by the 
Treaty of 1783. As we have already seen, they contin- 
ued to hold these for Indian trade, to stimulate hostility 
to immigration, and as good bases for working their own 
interests in recovering territory beyond the Ohio, if 
things should go unfavorably for the young Republic. 
But the growing compactness of the Republic as a union 
of states, and its natural increase in population and 
general strength, held out but poor hopes for Great 
Britain in this purpose. 

In 1751 the English, through the Ohio Company, 
planned to remove the French from the region of the 
Ohio, and after much diplomacy and fighting, here and 
there, they succeeded, on the Plains of Abraham, in 
wresting from them all their claims east of the Missis- 
sippi. " For the acquisition of this great and fertile re- 
gion," says Monette, " Great Britain had contended with 
France for more than sixty years, at an immense cost of 
blood and treasure, expended in no less than five long 
and expensive wars, and great human suffering by sea 
and land." ^ 

It is not surprising, therefore, that Great Britain 
^ Monette's History of the Mississippi Valley^ 1846, vol. i. 440. 



ENGLISH MONOPOLY OF THE FRONTIER. 49 

strenuously urged the Ohio as the western limit of the 
now independent colonies. When she reluctantly con- 
sented to carry the line to the Great Lakes and river, it 
was in accordance with her previous policy that she did 
not keep her promise promptly in vacating the strong- 
holds in the ceded territory. England had adopted a 
similar course, and successfully, when France gained the 
Hudson Bay country by the Treaty of Ryswick. At 
that time she shuffled and hesitated over the stipulated 
surrender, and held Fort Albany, on James Bay, till her 
reacquisition of the whole by the Treaty of Utrecht. 

In 1779 the Spanish on the lower Mississippi being 
in sympathy with the revolutionary colonies, moved to 
expel the English from West Florida, and were success- 
ful, with the exception of Pensacola, the capital. To 
avenge these wrongs and divert the Spanish forces from 
the south the English commander at Mackinaw, in 1780, 
organized an attack on St. Louis, the capital of Upper- 
Louisiana — then a Spanish province. His force con- 
sisted of about one hundred and fifty British and Cana- 
dian regulars and fourteen hundred Indians. The mixed 
Spanish, French, and Indian town had a stockade de- 
fence with a few cannon and some light arms. The 
Spanish governor was not free from suspicion of dealing 
treacherously, and, but for the timely arrival, on express 
call, of General George Rogers Clark from Kaskaskia, 
the United States officer in charge of the Illinois coun- 
try, the result must have been serious in the extreme. 
As it was, about sixty citizens were killed, but the attack 
was a failure. The year is registered in the annals of 
that frontier and wilderness town as Z' Annee du Coup. 
If the English had succeeded, their possession of St. 
Louis would probably have given to them Upper Louis- 
4 



50 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

iana in the capture of its capital.- At least it would 
have embarrassed, and perhaps prevented, the retroces- 
sion of it by Spain to France in 1800, and so its sale to the 
United States in 1803. Thus, possibly, the old ambi- 
tion of England might have obtained on the west bank 
of the Mississippi a substitute for its painful loss on the 
east of it. 

This, very likely, would have made the Oregon ques- 
tion impossible ; and perhaps would have left that west- 
ern slope of the great valley in hands that we have seen 
were fast taking possession of it. If so, and the Hud- 
son Bay Company had allowed no more settlement 
and civilization there than in their original field, they 
might now be skinning buffalo on the wheat farms of 
Illinois, Minnesota, and Dakota, and catching beavers 
and grizzlies where Americans have honeycombed the 
mountains for gold and silver, and built factories and 
cities, and stretched out railroads. 

It was very clear that the fur-trade would be ruined 
in the northwest if immigration poured into that region. 
Hence the agents and servants of this traffic excited the 
natives against the innovating settlements, from the in- 
dependence of the colonies to the War of 1812. Our 
entire domain beyond the Alleghanies, south to the 
Gulf, and north to the Lakes, was in an uneasy and crit- 
ical relation to the government in 1794 and thereabout. 
It had no direct communication over the mountains with 
the Atlantic, for the transportation of its productions, 
and only fickle, expensive, and annoying permits from 
the Spanish for passage down the valley to the Gulf. 
It was not in easy and frequent communication with 
the States, and with the national administration at 
Philadelphia, and was both tempted to secession, and 



ENGLISH MONOPOLY OF THE FRONTIER. 51 

provoked toward war with the Spanish in the south- 
west. Within a few years of the close of the last 
century, and in the opening ones of this, there were 
four tendencies among the Americans beyond the moun- 
tains, with a chance that one or more might develop into 
a sectional faction : Secession and an independent gov- 
ernment : Annexation to the Province of Louisiana : 
War with Spain to gain the Mississippi River : Union 
of the territory between the Ohio, Mississippi, and Gulf 
with the Province of Louisiana under a foreign protect- 
orate. Probably Washington never showed more of the 
combination of the general and the statesman than when, 
ten years before, he made the tour of the West, and 
then wrote to Governor Harrison of Virginia and the 
father of the President : " I need not remark to you 
that the flank and roar of the United States are pos- 
sessed by other powers, and formidable ones too. . . . 
How entirely unconnected with them shall we be, and 
what troubles may we not apprehend, if the Spaniards 
on the right and Great Britain on the left, instead of 
throwing stumbling-blocks in the way, as they now do, 
should hold out lures for their trade and alliance ! When 
they gain strength, which will be sooner than most peo- 
ple conceive. . . . The Western States hang upon 
a pivot. The touch of a feather would turn them any 
way." ^ 

As early as 1787 the Spanish authorities in the south- 
west took active measues to seduce sections of our do- 
main there into secession, and lead them to join the 
Spanish Province of Louisiana. To this project Gen- 
eral Wilkinson, our military head of the southwest, is 
strongly suspected of having given not only ear, but aid, 
1 living's Life of Washington, vol. iv. 454-459. 



52 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

and to have received heavy pecuniary bribes. This sus- 
picion and almost assurance covered him from this date 
to the exposure and suppression of Burr's conspiracy to 
draw the southwest into a revolt, in the years 1805-7. 

A bundle of private letters in my possession, written 
about that time by one who was afterwards an eminent 
citizen of Missouri, distinctly asserts this suspicion. 
Quite lately Gayarre, the historian of Louisiana, is said 
to have discovered in the archives at Seville the secret 
correspondence of Wilkinson with the Spanish officials, 
showing that he and others received bribes and entered 
into negotiations, to annex Kentucky and Tennessee to 
the then Spanish dominion of Louisiana. Indeed it was 
with great peril that the United States maintained su- 
premacy over her own territory in that region against 
the schemes of the Spanish and French. 

The most serious and obvious danger, however, was 
English, since Great Britain, from the strongholds she 
retained, fed and armed and incited the Indians, who, in 
marauding parties, made raids upon the frontier and 
held in check the growth of settlement. These annoy- 
ances and dangers continued with but little cessation, and 
with other causes brought on the War of 1812. Te- 
cumseh, a man of great native talent, activity, and per- 
sistance, had opposed the treaties that gave to the whites 
the lands beyond the Ohio. From the days of the Rev- 
olution he had stood forth as the great Indian statesman 
and warrior of the west. The English used him, with his 
brother, the Prophet, to rouse and combine the Indians 
all along the frontier, from the Lakes to the Gulf. Gen- 
eral Harrison, afterward president, met Tecumseh, with 
a score or more of his chiefs, in council at Vincennes, 
1811, for a friendly settlement of grievances. The im- 



ENGLISH MONOPOLY OF THE FRONTIER. 53 

perious and insolent sachem broke up the conference, 
and Harrison soon after carried the questions to the 
battle of Tippecanoe, where there was a total defeat of 
the Indians. That battle opened the War of 1812, in 
which, among other issues, the English made an effort 
to recover the northwest, and so carry a monopoly to 
the Pacific, but in this they failed. 

But while Great Britain, the nation, was thus strug- 
gling and failing, the Hudson Bay Company, the cor- 
poration which, practically, was Great Britain in North 
America, was silently coming into actual possession in 
the deeper wilderness between the Mississippi and the 
Pacific. The United States, it is true, had come into 
legal possession of that magnificent country, but not into 
occupation. The issue, therefore, between the mother 
country, ambitious for territory, and the growing repub- 
lic was to be made in a farther west, and the national 
title to Oregon was to be determined on its immediate 
border, and within its limits. 

After the Treaty of 1783, in the settlement of the 
Revolution, the boundary was to be run, according to 
ao^reement, between the United States and the Brit- 
ish possessions. In attempting and at last completing 
this work, the same old Saxon greed for land showed 
itself. At first it might seem an easy and brief labor 
to run the lines, yet before the work was done, eighty- 
nine years passed by. 

Both parties to the war were wearied of the strife, 
and were willing to guess jointly on a river head, or 
lake point, or mountain height, and so fix bounds, and 
thence run treaty lines on paper, through wild lands un- 
known to each. Thus the northwest point of the Lake 
of the Woods was assumed for one bound from which 



54 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

the line was to run, to the north-western point of the 
Lake, and thence "due west" to the Mississippi. The 
clause in the treaty reads thus : " to the said Lake of the 
Woods, thence through the said Lake to the most north- 
western point thereof, and from thence on a due west 
course to the river Mississippi." But the head of that 
river proved to be a hundred miles or so to the south. 
So that little prominence in our otherwise straight 
boundary on the north is the bump of ignorance devel- 
oped by two nations. The St. Croix was fixed by treaty 
as the boundary on the northeast, but a special " Joint 
Commission '^ was required in 1794 to determine " what 
river is the St. Croix," and four years afterward this 
Commission called for an addition to their instructions 
since their original ones were not broad enough to en- 
able them to determine the true St. Croix. 

Still nothing was agreed to by actual lines and bounds, 
and in 1814 another Joint Commission was appointed, 
but in an entirely new field. At this time the work 
was to determine what islands should belong to the 
United States between Florida and Nova Scotia. In the 
same year, however, another set of Commissioners began 
the running of the boundary from the head of the St. 
Croix, by the head of the Connecticut to the St. Law- 
rence, and thence through the middle of its channel and 
the middle of the Lakes, to the outlet of Lake Superior. 
After a labor of seven and a half years in mapping, nam- 
ing, and dividing about one hundred and eighty islands 
along this middle channel, the Corps of Commissioners 
and civil engineers arrived with their line at the Sault Ste. 
Marie. Still it remained to carry the line through Lake 
Superior and to the Lake of the Woods, which in due time 
was accomplished, and in 1818 it was agreed to by the 



ENGLISH MONOPOLY OF THE FRONTIER. 56 

Commissioners, though not run on the forty-ninth paral- 
lel from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains. 

Yet this was not without hindrances and anxieties. 
The negotiations were carried on at London, and both 
parties were still in ignorance of the location, in latitude 
and longitude, of the old bound — the north-west point 
of the Lake of the Woods. It was agreed, therefore, to 
run north or south from it, as the case might require, till 
the forty-ninth parallel should be struck, and then on 
that parallel to the mountains. The English Commis- 
sioners, still painfully reluctant to part with the coveted 
and long-struggled-for Mississippi Valley, endeavored to 
secure for English subjects over the line, a right of way 
to the Mississippi River, and free navigation of the 
same. 

It was probably a fair hundred miles across the coun- 
try from the nearest British territory to the upper heads 
of that river, where the Mississippi begins in some trout 
brook. Thence its waters run more than three thousand 
miles to the Gulf of Mexico. It was a bold, English 
request, that they be permitted to traverse that belt and 
avail themselves of that navigation, where they had no 
foot of land. It was a vain endeavor of course, and with 
a longing, lingering, and last look on that splendid val- 
ley, they turned away, and set their faces " due west " 
on the latitude of forty- nine. 

Therefore in the London negotiations of 1818 there 
was a suspension of line running westward. A^*|coMi 
promise followed, the joint occupation oli Or&g^rbsfsqf 
ten years was the result, and in 1827^^tfe^'C6fa!/|)l'OMise3(Dif 
joint occupation was renewed, and was to i^ii>4ndMnitf4«i 
ly, but terminable by a notice of one year given by either 
party. 



56 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

Meanwhile the line between the St. Croix and the 
St. Lawrence remained undecided, and the Ashburton- 
Webster Treaty of 1842 fixed it. Four years later 
another Joint Commission was raised to run the north- 
western boundary line from the mountains to the " mid- 
dle of the channel" between the mainland and Vancou- 
ver Island. But when the Commission came to the 
Pacific coast they could not agree on the " middle of the 
Channel." 

In 1871 the question was submitted to the Emperor 
of Germany as final arbiter on the meaning of the 
phrase, " middle of the Channel," and which channel it 
called for; and in 1872 he affirmed the claim of the 
United States. 

Thus, under eight treaties, with fifteen specifications 
of work to be done, and running through eighty-nine 
years, this boundary question was prolonged to its con- 
clusion. 

This summary of the boundary questions between the 
United States and Great Britain will show with what 
tenacity England held to her land claims, and land 
chances too, and with what protesting reluctance she re- 
ceded north and west before the United States. The 
summary will aid, too, in showing how the two nations 
slowly and earnestly closed in around the coveted Ore- 
gon. For fourscore years distance from the prize had 
kept them cool and steady in the struggle, but now the 
two parties, standing together and looking down on that 
prize from the crown of the Rocky Mountains, warmed 
into an ardor which co-uld only increase till one of them 
should take it. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ASTORIA ; ITS FOUNDINa AKD FAILURE. 

When, in 1818, the Joint Boundary Commission 
agreed on the parallel of forty-nine, and carried it west 
to the mountains, and would have continued it to the 
Pacific, they were stopped by fur-traders, who had, prac- 
tically, set up two nationalities in the territory, each of 
which was striving for the whole. It came about in this 
way. 

When the Commissioners were trying, in 1794, to de- 
termine " what river is the St. Croix," Mackenzie had 
just returned from a tour from Montreal to the Arctic 
and Pacific oceans. This tour was the first sign of 
white men, and of a new order of things in the wilds 
beyond the mountains. The openings and possibilities 
for trade made known by Mackenzie's tours were dis- 
cussed, not only at Fort Chippewa, on Athabasca, but 
at York Factory as well, and in London too. Un- 
measured territory and untold wealth seemed to be 
suddenly revealed to the English fur-trade, and one 
company, the Northwest of Montreal, at once began 
preparations to enter it. 

The tour of Lewis and Clark, 1804-6, made the Eng- 
lish jealous lest the Americans should gain the advance ; 
and in 1805, before the American explorers had returned, 
the Northwest Company dispatched an expedition un- 
der one Laroque, to occupy the Columbia with trad- 



58 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

ing-posts. They, however, did not proceed beyond the 
Mandan village on the Missouri. But in the year fol- 
lowing Mr. Fraser left Fort Chippewa, crossed the 
mountains, and planted an establishment on Fraser Lake. 
This was the first settlement made by the English west 
of the mountains. Other posts were soon planted by the 
same Company, and the region was called New Cale- 
donia. 

The return of Lewis and Clark, the next year, stimu- 
lated individual enterprise in occupying the new Ameri- 
can purchase and magnificent fur lands. The struggles 
of competitors were sharp and serious at times, but were 
finally compromised in the organization of the American 
Fur Company, in 1808, with head-quarters at St. Louis. 
They started trading-posts on the sources of the Missis- 
sippi and Missouri, and some on the other side of the 
mountains. Mr. Henry, one of their agents, established 
Post Henry, on Lewis River, and, so far as appears, this 
was the first trading factory of any white people in ter- 
ritory drained by the Columbia. 

The long-deferred contest for Oregon was now fairly 
opened, not by ministers of state, but by daring and 
frontier business men, who it will be finally seen closed 
the contest. They were the primaries of the two com- 
peting governments. Two overland expeditions to the 
Pacific, led by Mackenzie, and by Lewis and Clark, had 
challenged each other for the grand prize, and the two 
primaries stood at Fraser Lake and Post Henry. 

John Jacob Astor made the next prominent move- 
ment in the direction of Oregon. Mr. Astor was a man 
of broad business vision and keen perception in financial 
lines. He had such a passion for fur that his whole ner- 
vous organization seemed to thrill with the ruffling and 



ASTORIA: ITS FOUNDING AND FAILURE. 59 

smoothing of some rare and choice skins. He probably 
never looked on a prime black beaver or one of those 
heavy, pulpy sea-otter skins without coveting it, and 
never let one slide out of his sensitive hands without re- 
luctance. 

An incident will show his eye for business. He was 
a German immigrant, and when first coming upon our 
coast in Chesapeake Bay, a terrible storm and thin ice- 
floes made the wreck of the ship in which he sailed al- 
most a certainty. While thus in long and increasing 
perils, young Astor came on deck, to the surprise of his 
stricken and hopeless companions, in his best suit of 
clothes. His explanation was that if he escaped with 
life his clothes would be all he could save, and he would 
save his best. That habit of forethoug-ht for the main 
chance grew with his years, and finally placed him in 
the first line of millionaires in America. When I used 
to see him on the streets of New York he was sup- 
ported between two stout men, much bowed over, so 
that he could not look up to see even his own merchant 
blocks, where every brick represented a beaver and 
every faced stone a sea-otter. 

At the age of forty Mr. Astor was well established 
in his favorite business on the Great Lakes and their 
rivers, where this western and Pacific opening was made 
tempting to daring men. His quick eye saw the chances, 
not only for his fascinating fur-trade, in the mountains 
and on the shores beyond, but for a half-way house 
on the Columbia between New York and China, for 
his general Asiatic trade. The scope and verge of the 
new field opened fairly to the compass of the man, who 
had a continental grasp in his business hand. His gen- 
eral plan was to build a substantial and fortified trading- 



60 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

post at the mouth of the Columbia, as a place of deposit 
for goods and their exchanges with Indians, trappers, 
and small traders. To this post he would, with the co- 
operation of government, open a comfortable and pro- 
tected overland route to facilitate geneial traffic and set- 
tlements westward. From the post he would trade up 
and down the Pacific, and thence to Canton and on the 
old line of commerce to London and New York. It was 
a plan of excellent strategy, even if designed only to 
take possession of Oregon for the United States, and 
such a government as patronizes an East India or Hud- 
son Bay Company would have so regarded and used it. 

But the old east of the United States has never meas- 
ured and appreciated and anticipated the new west. 
" When they gain strength, which will be sooner than 
most people conceive." Washington said that of the 
west, after his tour through the region, and its truth 
holds yet. The growing strength of the new country 
is surprising the expectations and surpassing the belief 
of the old thirteen states every year. The centre of 
population and of wealth and of voting and political 
power has long since gone over the mountains, and into 
the very region of which Washington spoke, and with 
more rapid steps is going on to a farther west. The 
east has always been slow to know this and own it, and 
make the most and the best of it. Astor seemed to 
see farther as a foreigner than the native born, and an- 
ticipated the movement of the nation across the Missis- 
sippi, where so much of it is to-day. 

He started an overland expedition from St. Louis for 
the Columbia in 1810, consisting of about sixty per- 
sons. After a journey of fifteen months and much suf- 
fering, this company, reduced by death, arrived at As- 



ASTORIA: ITS FOUNDING AND FAILURE. 61 

toria. A company of about the same number made 
shorter time and arrived earlier by the way of Cape 
Horn. After building and properly fortifying Astoria, 
the vessel, the Tonquin, in which this last company 
came, ran up the coast on a trading cruise, where the 
crew were all murdered by the Indians, with the excep- 
tion of one, who managed to blow up the ship, when 
crowded with plundering natives, and one hundred of 
them, with himself, perished in the act. 

In anticipation of possible mishaps, Astor sent out the 
Beaver to follow the Tonquin, with a duplicate of her 
cargo and freight. She supplied the needs of the young 
post, after the sad fate of her associate, and then, load- 
ing with furs at Sitka, the Russian head quarters, she 
put out, homeward, and for trade by the way of Canton. 
At this port the Beaver learned of the war between the 
United States and Great Britain, and, not daring to put 
out, lay by there till the war closed. Unfortunately 
Mr. Hunt, the agent of Astor, had gone in the Beaver 
as far as the Sandwich Islands. There he also was de- 
tained when news of the war arrived. In 1813 Astor 
sent forward his third vessel, the Lark, which became a 
total loss, by shipwreck, on the Sandwich Islands. The 
Lark carried instructions to Mr. Hunt to protect Asto- 
ria, and Mr. Hunt, receiving these instructions, at once 
sailed for that place with supplies. 

Another in the series of misfortunes awaited him 
here, for he learned, on arrival, that a majority of the 
partners with Mr. Astor in this enterprise had sold out 
to the Northwest Fur Company of Montreal — a Brit- 
ish concern, and one in which some of those who sold 
out Astoria were concerned. The sale was not free 
from the suspicion that it was both dishonorable and dis- 



62 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

honest. Mr. Astor valued the property at $200,000, 
and received for it about $40,000. Before this sale, the 
Astor company, called the Pacific Fur Company, had 
established two other trading-posts in the interior, and 
had there come into competition if not conflict with the 
Northwest Company. These two were included in the 
sale.-^ 

We have already noticed the plan of the Northwest 
Company to occupy the mouth of the Columbia, in ad- 
vance of the return of Lewis and Clark, and thus to 
hold the whole interior drained by that river. But 
Laroque failed in the endeavor. In the summer of 
1811, after Astoria was established, a party of the 
Northwest Company came down to the spot, with the 
hope of occupying it in advance of the Americans. 
They had been dispatched from Canada in the preceding 
year to do this. But they were delayed in finding a 
passage through the mountains, and being compelled 
to winter on their ridges they came down the Columbia 
to find Astoria already founded. 

The leading partner in it, and the one who afterward 
led off in its sale, received them in a friendly and hospi- 
table way, and not as rivals ; when they returned from 
their vain expedition, he supplied them, not only with 
provisions, but with goods for trading purposes up the 
river, where they established trading huts among the 
Indians, and became rivals of the Americans. Strange 
to say, when the question of priority of occupation and 
of national sovereignty was under discussion at London, 
fifteen years afterward, the English put in these huts of 
this returning company, as proof that the English were 
as early as if not earlier in the Columbia than the Amer- 
1 Irving' s Astoria. 



ASTORIA: fTS FOUNDING AND FAILURE. 63 

icans. In the following year two other agents of the 
Northwest Company were received at Astoria in the 
same genial way, though the existing war was known at 
Astoria, and on their return they also were supplied 
with provisions and goods for trade by the way. Pri- 
vate conference between the two parties was produced 
afterward, as evidence of the treachery and dishonor 
then maturing against Mr. Astor and his company and 
the Americans generally. 

Before the war Great Britain asked the United 
States to favor the Northwest Company as against Mr. 
Astor. This they declined to do, but immediately ou 
the opening of the war, the English government dis- 
patched a naval force to the Columbia with orders " to 
take and destroy eveiything American on the North- 
west Coast." On arrival they were mortified and in- 
dignant that Astoria had already passed into English 
hands, and therefore that no plunder or prize-money 
awaited them. They had but the barren and ceremo- 
nial service to perform of running up the English flag, 
to call the post St. George, and sail for home. This 
was in 1813. 

Therefore, to the great satisfaction of British inter- 
ests in fur in North America, the American adventurers 
were first dishonorably bought out and crowded out on 
the Pacific, and then the position which they occupied 
was put under the British flag. By bad faith on the 
part of his Canadian associates, and by the chances of 
war, Mr. Astor was defeated in his broad plan. As a 
consequence grave anxieties overshadowed the Amer- 
ican interests on that coast. We wait and watch to see 
how the rivals proceed, and who prospers. 



CHAPTER IX. 

FACE TO FACE : AMERICA AND ENGLAND. 

War was declared by the United States against 
Great Britain, June 12, 1812, and the treaty of peace 
was signed at Ghent, December 14, 1814. By this 
treaty it was agreed that " all territory, places, and pos- 
sessions whatsoever, taken by either party from the 
other during the war o o » shall be restored without 
delay." This would seem to cover Astoria and call for 
its immediate surrender by the English authority. The 
next year, therefore, President Monroe informed the 
British Charge at Washington that he should at once 
reoccupy Astoria. Affairs lingered till 1817, when a 
vessel was put in readiness for that object. Then Mr. 
Bagot, the English plenipotentiary at Washington, op- 
posed the step. He made two points of objection. 
One was that the post of Astoria was sold by the 
Pacific Company to the Northwest Company before 
the war, and therefore had never been captured. But 
as such sale would convey only the use of the land with 
the property on it, and as a citizen cannot sell land so 
as to give it over to another government, he made an- 
other point, that " the territory itself was early taken 
possession of in his majesty's name, and had been since 
considered as forming part of his majesty's dominions." 

Under pressure of Mr. Rush, our minister at the 
Court of St. James, repossession was granted, but the 



FACE TO FACE: AMERICA AND ENGLAND. 65 

questions of absolute title, as to the point which govern- 
ment should own Oregon, the English reserved for a 
future settlement. So the English flag was hauled 
down, the Stars and Stripes went up, and the name 
was changed back from St. George to Astoria. This 
was in 18 18.^ 

An incident will show with what tenacity England 
held to Oregon, and with what adroitness and pretense 
she struggled for its possession. When tlie question 
came up again, in 1826, who should own that territory, 
her ministry pleaded that Mr. Bagot was instructed, 
privately and in conversation, to allow the Americans 
to return to Astoria only as tenants at will, and that he 
must assert the absolute claim of Great Britain, and 
that an American settlement on the Columbia must be 
regarded as an encroachment and trespass. What she 
claimed to have then said, in private and unwritten in- 
structions to her agent, no copy of which was made or 
notice served on the United States, she now made a 
basis of claim to sovereignty in the country, eight years 
afterward. To make private and unwritten instructions 
to an agent, held by him only in memory, a basis for a 
claim to territorial title, has at least the merit of fresh- 
ness and novelty in the records of diplomacy. 

The Honorable Rufus Choate, that rare scholar and 
jurist, had good reason for his words, spoken in his place 
in the Senate, when, years afterward, the Oregon ques- 
tion was a very warm one in Congress. 

" Keep your eye always open, like the eye of your 
own eagle, upon the Oregon. Watch day and night. 
Xf any new developments of policy break forth, meet 

1 Message of President Monroe, April 17, 1822, and accompanying 
Documents. 

5 



Q6 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

them. If the times change, do you change. New things 
in a new world. Eternal vigilance is the condition of 
empire as well as of liberty." 

Although Astoria was ceremonially restored, the 
Northwest Company of fur-traders continued to occupy 
it till 1845 — twenty-seven years — so finely and tedi- 
ously can the threads of diplomatic delays be spun out 
and woven. Before it was surrendered they had made 
it a formidable stronghold. It was a stockade fort, one 
hundred and fifty by two hundred and fifty feet, with 
post walls twelve feet high, and two bastions on diag- 
onal corners. It was defended by two eighteen-poun- 
ders, six six-pounders, four four-pound carronades, two 
six-pound cohorns and seven swivels. It was manned 
by twenty-three whites, sixteen half-breed Canadians, 
and twenty-six Sandwich Islanders. 

Such a military post was a threatening declaration of 
intention to hold the Columbia and its basin, and it was 
at the same time a fair index of the manner and spirit 
with which the country in dispute was monopolized. Yet 
at the same time the English were a party to the treaty 
of joint occupation, in which neither should monopolize 
to the damage of the other, or take steps toward a 
permanent occupancy. Inland lines of trade, attached 
to small centres and knotted together in little posts and 
huts here and there, were embracing Oregon as with 
a net. Not only were the Indians won over to the 
English side, but they were made to feel that they had 
no right to trade with the Americans, and the pernicious 
idea was carried, wide and clear, through all the tribes, 
that the Americans would take their lands, while the 
English wished only to trade in furs. 

To such an extent were the Indians thus prejudiced 



FACE TO FACE: AMERICA AND EN-GLAND. 67 

and alienated, that the citizens of the United States 
were obliged not only to renounce all ideas of renewing 
their establishments in that part of America, but even 
to withdraw their vessels from its coasts. For more 
than ten years after Astoria was sold out, it would have 
been difficult to find an American in the country. In 
his " History of Oregon and California " Greenhow says 
that when the Hudson Bay Company was before Par- 
liament in 1837 for the renewal of its charter, they 
"claimed and received the aid and consideration of 
government for their energy and success in expelling 
the Americans from the Columbia regions, and forming 
settlements there, by means of which they were rapidly 
converting Oregon into a British colony." 

While the Treaty of Ghent, 1814, restored Astoria 
to the United States, that place was not distinctly 
named, but embraced in the general phrase, " all terri- 
tory, place and possessions whatsoever, taken by either 
party." There is no allusion in the treaty to the north- 
west coast, or to any territory west of the Lake of the 
Woods. The American plenipotentiaries at Ghent were 
under instructions to concede no lands to Great Britain 
south of the forty-ninth parallel. The question of the 
boundary line west of the Lake of the Woods was intro- 
duced by the American commissioners, and in the same 
form in which it failed when the almost consummated 
treaty of 1807 failed. That proposition was, to extend 
the boundary west of the Lake on forty-nine " as far as 
their said respective territories extend in that quarter," 
and yet not far enough to bound territory claimed by 
either west of the mountains. Both governments 
agreed then to this, but the English violence to the 
American frigate Chesapeake stayed proceedings, and 
the treaty was not ratified. 



68 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

When this proposition was renewed in 1814 at Ghent, 
the English commissioners agreed to accept it, provided 
it be added that the subjects of Great Britain might 
reach the Mississippi through American territory, and 
navigate it to the sea. Of course this was declined; and 
so the Treaty of Ghent has no reference to territory or 
boundary west of the Lake of the Woods. 

As often as occasion warranted, the English turned 
with longing eyes toward that forbidden Mississippi. 
Its majestic current tempted them, and its long arms, 
thrown up into the interior of the continent and taking 
tribute from the Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountains, 
offered to carry their merchandise. When a steamer 
has run up from its mouths below New Orleans as far as 
from Liverpool to New York, it is still as far from high- 
water navigation, above Fort Benton, as the Azores are 
from New York. No wonder they coveted it, from 
Yorktown onward, but they were compelled to go to 
India and Egypt for their large rivers. 

These diplomatic incidents are interesting, as show- 
ing the endeavors of the English in those early days 
to secure the natural sources of power on the Pacific 
slope. We note specially those covert efforts to regain 
a footing in the Great Valley, which they controlled in 
part for twenty years after battling with France for it 
for sixty years. Many questions were left undecided by 
the Treaty of Ghent, and in 1818 they were renewed be- 
fore a joint commission at London, especially the bound- 
ary question from the Lake of the Woods west. The 
commission agreed to the forty-ninth parallel as the 
boundary from the Lake to the mountains. 

But the English commissioners finally, after mutual 
and full discussion of prior rights on the Pacific, de- 



FACE TO FACE: AMERICA AND ENGLAND. 69 

clared as an ultimatum that they would accede to no 
boundary which did not give to England the mouth of 
the Columbia. Then a joint occupation was agreed to 
in these words : — 

" It is agreed that any country that may be claimed 
by either party on the northwestern coast of America, 
westward of the Stony Mountains, shall, together with 
its harbors, bays, and creeks, and the navigation of all 
rivers within the same, be free and open for the term of 
ten years from the date of the signature of the present 
convention to the vessels, citizens, and subjects of the 
two powers," etc. 

That was a most unfortunate move for Great Britain. 
Ultimately it lost her the prize at stake. In that signa- 
ture she signed away any chance she had to that mag- 
nificent domain. True, the compromise on joint occu- 
pation gave to the Hudson Bay Company a practical 
monopoly of the fur-trade. It was now in possession 
of this, almost to the exclusion of all other parties and in- 
terests. But the policy of this company was really hostile 
to English and national interests. It was to cultivate wil- 
derness and not civilization, trading huts and not settle- 
ments, half-breeds and not English families. This was 
the fatal mistake of the government. Those august ne- 
gotiations were inspired and consummated in the inter- 
ests of beaver and not of men. They secured to one cor- 
poration the monopoly to continue to introduce, as they 
had for a century and a half, at York Factory, Athabas- 
ca, Fort Pelley, and Methey Portage, tea and raw spirits, 
trade guns, fishing and trapping gear, calico, duffle, and 
gewgaws. As we have shown before, the orders for 
goods were scarcely varied for a century. Sometimes 
the monotony of the clerkly work at both ends of the 



70 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

line was pleasantly broken by an order on the London 
house for a wife. This was the only resort for the 
bachelor, except the ordinary course of selecting from 
the wilderness. Interests in the great fur land would 
not allow an absence of from two to six years for a wife, 
when one could be selected to order, like raw spirits or 
calico, and be received and receipted for " in good con- 
dition." 1 

The Fur Company would keep back the rude im- 
plements of an opening husbandry, and the humble, vir- 
tuous beginnings of domestic life and strong citizenship. 
The English commissioners made a blunder when they 
imagined that a steel-trap would possess and hold the 
disputed territory better than a spade, and that a 
beaver dam in North America was worth more to the 
English crown than a factory dam. When too late, as 
we shall soon see, the English ministry attempted to re- 
cover from this fatal error. 

1 Robinson's Great Fur Land, p. 67. 



CHAPTER X. 

AMERICAN SPEECHES, ENGLISH STEEL-TRAPS, AND 
DIPLOMACY. 

In the Louisiana Purchase, the southwestern line be- 
tween that territory and the Spanish possessions was left 
not only poorly known, but quite indefinitely described. 
The conferences of the powers bordering on that 
line were protracted through years, and at times they 
were not pleasant. The Florida Purchase gave a good op- 
portunity to fix that boundary, as it did, on parchment. 

The parallel of forty- two on the Pacific was fixed as 
the dividing line running east from that Ocean to a point 
due north or south, as the facts might require, to the 
source of the Arkansas ; down this river to longitude 
one hundred ; on that meridian south till it strikes the 
Red River ; down the Red River to longitude ninety- 
four ; due south on it to the Sabine River ; and down the 
Sabine to the Gulf of Mexico. This boundary affirmed 
the southern limits of Oregon, and so aided to give out- 
line and definiteness to the coveted land of our narrative. 

In the attempts made by the coterminous nations to 
survey and mark off this line with bounds, from the 
mouth of the Sabine to Oregon tide- water, where it 
washes the continent on precisely latitude forty-two, 
there were various delays, as there had been from 1803, 
in the attempt to outline the same on paper by verbal 
description. It was well understood that Spain was 



72 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

greatly dissatisfied at the transfer of the Louisiana to a 
republic, and was greatly displeased with France for mak- 
ing the transfer. Hence there was an apparent deter- 
mination on her part not to agree to its southern boun- 
dary, while she waited and hoped for some contingencies 
that might possibly recover it from republican hands. 
These delays continued to the close of the Mexican war. 
when, in 1848, the United States became owner on the 
other side of the unrun line. Then, as the metes and 
bounds were not needed, they were never run out and set. 
Congressional discussions and negotiations between 
the United States and Great Britain followed close and 
continuous on the Florida Treaty of 1818, but with little 
progress and less result. Only events made progress, 
and as these could not be brought within the compass 
and control of statesmen, the Oregon question moved on 
silently to its close. 

In 1820 an inquiry was raised in the House of Rep- 
resentatives as to the condition of American interests on 
the Pacific, and the expediency of occupying, in a sub- 
stantial way, the Columbia. An able report was secured, 
with a recommendation to establish " small trading 
guards " on the Missouri and Columbia, and to secure 
immigration to Oregon from the United States and from 
China. The papers went to the table for the remainder 
of the session ; were revised in 1821, and then slept again 
for two years. In December, 1823, the announcement 
of the Monroe Doctrine tended to quicken discussion on 
Oregon in both Congress and Parliament, and to retard 
negotiations. A special committee was raised in Con- 
gress to consider the military occupation of the mouth 
of the Columbia. The committee recommended that 
two hundred men be dispatched immediately overland, 



SPEECHES, STEEL-TRAPS, AND DIPLOMACY. 73 

and two vessels with military supplies and stores be sent 
to fortify and hold that place. They also proposed that 
four or five military posts be established at Council 
Bluffs and on the Pacific. 

Council Bluffs was then the most frontier military 
post of the United States, but is now a thriving city 
in the east, that is, in the eastern half of our country. 
Lippincott's Gazetteer of 1856 locates it " in the In- 
dian Territory, on the west bank of Missouri River, at 
.the highest point to which steamboats ascend." This 
does very well for scholarship and business that con- 
fine travel and study to Colony times and the eastern 
States. There are but two mistakes. Council Bluffs is 
put on the wrong side of the Missouri, and about twenty- 
eight hundred miles only short of " the highest point to 
which steamboats ascend." 

The papers were printed, and more action seems to 
have been had on them abroad than at home. In the 
House nothing was done. The inaction left affairs to 
assume the best possible shape for the United States, 
and this came, yet not of the foresight and plans of states- 
men. There appeared to be a lack of appreciation of 
the case, and there was a skepticism and lethargy con- 
cerning that half of the Union, which have by no means 
yet disappeared. 

The year following, negotiations were again opened 
at London, and for a brief time Mr. Rush claimed for 
the United States from the forty-second to the fifty-first 
parallels, which section would embrace all the waters 
feeding the Columbia. This was apparently on the 
European theory that the discovery of the mouth of a 
river carries its entire basin. The English plenipoten- 
tiaries replied that their government would never yield 



74 OREGON: TEE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

the northern half of that basin, and they proposed the 
Columbia as the boundary, beginning on it where paral- 
lel forty-nine strikes it. Mr. Rush added the proposi- 
tion of ten years' joint occupation, and that the Ameri- 
cans should found no posts north of the fifty-first paral- 
lel, or the English south of it. But there was a mutual 
rejection of all propositions, and so this negotiation 
closed. It was a gain, however, that each party had 
defined its claims and made offers, and so the question 
took on outlines, or limits, which was one good step, 
toward a settlement. 

President Monroe in his last message — 1824 — called 
attention to the military occupation of the country in 
dispute, and recommended a survey of the mouth of the 
Columbia, and regions adjacent, by a board of civil en- 
gineers. President Adams did the same the next year. 
These recommendations produced two elaborate reports, 
setting forth the history, geography, climate, soil, furs 
and other products of that region, and also the cost 
of the proposed military establishments and the probable 
expense for maintaining them. A bill favorable and 
corresponding was introduced, and then Oregon slept 
again in the halls of Congress till 1828. 

Meanwhile the joint occupation for ten years was 
drawing to a close, and events compelled action outside. 
In 1821 the Hudson Bay Company and the Northwest 
Company had united, and by the union expensive rival- 
ry, over-paying and under-selling, litigation, and not in- 
frequent bloody conflicts, came to an end. The enlarged 
Hudson Bay Company could now cover the northern 
parts of North America with great power and compre- 
hensiveness and detail. Not only through the British 
Provinces, but through the northern parts of the United 



SPEECHES, STEEL-TRAPS, AND DIPLOMACY. 75 

States their trappers and boats and agents were scattered, 
and their semi - military factories were near enough to- 
gether to receive the furs, furnish goods in exchange 
and guaranty defenses. 

Of course, at the end of the ten years, Oregon was 
mainly British in its occupants, business, and profits. 
Indeed, when the question of joint occupation was forced 
into notice by the near expiration of the first agreement, 
the English plenipotentiaries say, in an elaborate state- 
ment of their side of the case : " In the interior of the 
territory in question the subjects of Great Britain have 
had, for many years, numerous settlements and trading- 
posts — several of these posts on the tributary streams 
of the Columbia, several upon the Columbia itself, some 
to the northward, and others to the southward of that 
river. ... In the whole of the territory in question 
the citizens of the United States have not a single set- 
tlement or trading-post. They do not use that river, 
either for the purpose of transmitting or receiving any 
produce of their own to or from other parts of the 
world." 1 

During this conference the old offer of each party 
was made over again with variations, the English te- 
naciously adhering to the river boundary. To aid in 
this they offered, additionally, a section lying on and 
about the Straits of Fuca, from Bullfinch's Bay to 
Hood's Canal. But no decision on boundaries could be 
reached, and the negotiations ended in extending the 
agreement of joint occupation indefinitely, terminable 
by either on notice of one year. 

i For a full statement of the English and the American sides of the 
Oregon question see President Adams'' Message, December 12, 1827, 
and Documents, and in Appendix to Greenhow's History, p;p. 446-465. 



76 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

This renewal of the arrangement of 1818 was con- 
firmed by Congress, but immediately a great and pro- 
tracted debate arose in that body. A bill was reported 
in the House authorizing the President to survey the 
territory west of the mountains between the parallels of 
forty-two, and fifty-four forty, occupy the same by mili- 
tary posts and garrisons, and extend the laws of the 
United States over it. The bill was lost, and very lit- 
tle interest on the subject showed itself again in Con- 
gress for many years. 



CHAPTER XI. 

WESTERN MEN ON THE OREGON TRAIL. 

The Oregon question failed of sympathy in the 
older States, and eastern interest did not keep pace 
with western growth. When it was a journey of three 
weeks from New England to any point on the Missis- 
sippi, it is not strange that the East should have but lit- 
tle knowledge of the immense domain beyond that river. 
It required the locomotive to introduce the Atlantic to 
the Father of Waters, and to convince the country east 
of the Alleghanies, that two thirds of the Republic then 
lay west of that stream. It is quite as difficult now to 
satisfy the East that only about one fifth of our domain 
lies between that river and the Atlantic. When " out 
West," meant the Genesee country in " York State," or 
the Western Reserve in " the Ohio," it was a hard thing 
to appreciate Oregon. Our first railroad to the Mis- 
sissippi did not arrive till 1854, — at Rock Island. 
Prior to that it was a long way by saddle and wagon, 
and a longer and harder way still across Missouri, 
up the Platte, and toward the Yellowstone. Slowly 
and tediously, therefore, Oregon gained a hearing on 
the Atlantic slope, and its facts and possibilities some- 
times had to crowd their way into place and power. 
In truth the happy and well-regulated family of states 
in the old half of the Union did not welcome the found- 
ling. 



78 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

In the great Congressional debate that defeated the 
bill last mentioned, it was urged by its opponents, that 
even if the United States had undisputed title, the oc- 
cupation of the country would be of doubtful utility, 
from its barrenness, dangerous coasts, distance and in- 
accessibility from the States by either land or sea. If 
emigration should settle it, the defense of citizens 
there would compel a much greater outlay than any 
supposable income from it would warrant. This line 
of reasoning showed but little sympathy with a grow- 
ing frontier. The logic and statesmanship were more 
provincial than national. 

The conservative, satisfied, and untravelled East has 
always had a skeptical turn of mind as to the extent, 
growth of settlement, the political, and moral import- 
ance of the constantly receding border. Travel for 
pleasure has usually been directed abroad, and not in- 
land ; and the new towns and states, even as the rivers, 
prairies, and mountains of the west have been meas- 
ured by the home standards of childhood. 

When therefore a decision upon its interest took the 
ballot form, the frontier has too often been voted as rel- 
atively unimportant. There was a very early exhibition 
of the tendency to prefer old centres, and a finished state 
of things, when the Colonial Legislature of Massachu- 
setts put this on her Records in 1632 : "It is thought 
by geiial consent, that Boston is the fittest place for 
publique meeteings of any place in the Bay." 

When we measure the worth of the Oregon of 1828, 
as it appears to-day for us — Oregon, Washington, and 
Idaho Territories — we tremble to think how near the 
old states were to alienating, and disowning, and losing 
that magnificent region. 



WESTERN MEN ON THE OREGON TRAIL. 79 

It was left for the west — often chided, and even yet, 
for lack of effort to care for itself — to save the farther 
west, by occupying it at great peril, and so compelling 
attention to it. When bills in Congress for opening 
and possessing Oregon went to the table for a final rest, 
or over to the great mass of rejected papers, energetic 
western men went to the upper waters of the Missis- 
sippi, Missouri, Platte, and Yellowstone, in the fur-trade. 
Thus, by occupation and possession, they forced the dis- 
cussion of this question. Having threaded the head 
streams of those rivers on the eastern prairies and 
slopes, they began to trace the gorges and cafions of the 
mountains. The North American and the Columbia 
Companies, united in 1826, did the most of this, and 
St. Louis became the centre of the fur trade for the 
United States. 

From the same city, and about these times, those great 
caravans had begun to start off on the Santa Fe trail 
into New Mexico. Eminent in this foreign trade were 
Bent and St. Yrain, while Ashley led the way into the 
extreme west, and finally over the mountains into the 
great central basin. It was in 1823 that Ashley scattered 
his hardy men on the Sweet Water, a branch of the 
Platte, and on Green River, one of the heads of the 
Colorado. In the year following he planted a trading- 
post near Salt Lake. This was twelve hundred miles 
from St. Louis — the equivalent of twelve thousand now 
— and to it in 1826 he hauled a six-pound cannon — the 
first to waken those mountain-slumbers of ages. Wag- 
ons followed in 1828. That was a significant year and 
event, for then the Republic began to go over the moun- 
tains and at that time took one of its long and strong 
steps toward the Pacific. Perhaps the wagons, at sight 



80 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

of which the spirit of Jacob revived, were not better 
loaded for the human family. 

When Ashley's compauy sent to St. Louis furs to the 
value of $180,000 as the product of one year, it created 
a profound impression, and the Rocky Mountain Com- 
pany was one result, prominent in which was the early 
St. Louis name of Sublette. This company traversed 
and traded along the southern branches of the Columbia 
and through the most of California. 

The energy, daring, and service of the western men 
of those times in hastening and aiding the Oregon ques- 
tion to settlement, are well illustrated in* Mr. Pilcher. 
He left Council Bluffs in 1827, with forty-five men and 
one hundred horses ; wintered in Colorado ; in the sum- 
mer following was on Lewis River and along the north- 
western base of the mountains; in 1829 came down 
Clark's River to Fort Colville, a Hudson Bay post, 
thence by the heads of the Colu-^mbia, the Athabasca, and 
Red Rivers to the upper Missouri, and so returned to 
the States.^ 

Eminent among the western men who did so much to 
diffuse information and stimulate interest concerning 
Oregon was J. O. Pattie, of St. Louis. His adventures 
in the fur-trade led him through the New Mexico of 
those days, and Sonora and Chihuahua of old Mexico. 
He went up and down the Colorado and along the Gulf 
of California. His narrative was published in 1832, 
and the knowledge of those unknown regions which it 
revealed, the wild incidents which it detailed, and the 
sources which it opened to adventurers, stirred quite an 
excitement in the border states, and created a passion 
to explore the wild west and engage in the fur and 
Indian trades. 
1 Documents with message of President Jackson, January 23, 1829. 



WESTERN MEN ON THE OREGON TRAIL. 81 

Captain Bonneville, of the army, may be mentioned 
in this connection. He led his one hundred men and 
more, with their wagons and goods, from the Missouri 
to the Colorado, and even to the Columbia. It was a 
two years' romance in trapping and trading and explor- 
ing. Only experience can give one a tolerable idea of 
the excitement and joy and intense feeling of liberty 
which one feels, when roaming thus at one's own wild 
will, beyond the borders of highways and fences, laws 
and cabins, locks and keys, where dinner is ordered by 
the rifle, tables are spread under the trees, and beds 
under the stars. 

It was not the west alone that pressed these individual 
and company enterprises over the borders, and compelled 
Oregon to come into sight and the east to see it. Under 
the quiet, scholarly, and conservative elms of Old Cam- 
bridge in the extreme east, there sprang a passion for 
Oregon, which took shape in an emigrating company 
in 1832 under Nathaniel J. Wyeth. The writings of 
Hall J. Kelly did much to stimulate and set forward 
this enterprise. The company of twenty- two persons 
was a novel affair, and had in it more of the Yankee 
than was found useful out west. Near a college, and 
books, where men on the streets spoke a dozen lan- 
guages, and in the shops were very scientific mechanics, 
the company got up a vehicle, half and half. Bottom 
up it was a wagon, the other side up it was a boat ; it 
had oars ; it had wheels. It was a mechanical hybrid, 
an amphibious vehicle, and took to land or water with 
equal delight. Indeed, the men of those classic shades 
called it the " Amphibium." The boys of those same 
shades, who have a keen perception of novelties, and 
who knew the oddities in the make-up of Mr. Wyeth, 

6 



82 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

called it the " Natwyetheum." There were three built, 
and they put out from Old Cambridge for Oregon, with 
all their motley freight of " notions " to match. 

" O'er bog, or steep, thro' straight, rough, dense, or rare 
With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, 
And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies." 

No wonder the company experienced some difficulties 
in the German neighborhoods as they passed the Alle- 
ghanies. Says the narrative : " Here we experienced a 
degree of inhospitality not met with among the savages. 
The innkeepers, when they found that we came from 
New England, betrayed an unwillingness to accommo- 
date Yankees." They refused i-efreshinent and lodgings, 
locked their bar-rooms, and even stood guard with rifles 
in hand. What else could those Dutchmen do or think, 
as they saw those machines climbing the mountains? 
No wonder the Dutchmen were afraid. Two years be- 
fore the Baltimore and Ohio E-ailroad, over which the 
company had come sixty miles, so far as complete then, 
had been trying to run cars by sails, and now here were 
these three vehicles — a cross between an omnibus and 
a boat ! Forty-nine days brought them to St. Louis and 
to their senses, where the wise men of the east became 
practical, and abandoned the "Amphibium" and the 
most of its knickknackery. 

It is said by those who have lived on both sides of the 
Mississippi, that there are more Boston notions east of 
that river than west of it. Father Wiggin's ferry used 
to carry them over, in small quantities, in trunk or head, 
more generally than does the present magnificent St. 
Louis bridge. 

By steamer Otter to Independence, two hundred and 
sixty miles, and thence out upon the prairie, they pressed 



WESTERN MEN ON THE OREGON TRAIL. 83 

on, and our Cambridge friends were well on the way for 
Oregon. Fortunately they then came under convoy of 
William Sublette and company, a Rocky Mountain 
trader, wise in wood-craft and aborigines. Mr. Wyeth 
soon found himself among the Indians, and at once saw 
the dijBPerence between the eastern and western Indian 
— the one being a book Indian, full of sentiment and 
high romance, and the other a live Indian, of dirt, paint, 
and a tomahawk. Ere long this tramping for Oregon 
became a plain matter of fact. The poetry was at Cam- 
bridge, and the reality on the prairies. On the Fourth 
of July they drank the health of the nation in water 
from Lewis' Fork of the Columbia. But they were a 
sad company, and would have preferred the frog-pond 
on Boston Common. The experienced Sublette and 
his hardy mountain boys were soon to part with them 
for their trading and trapping stations, and what with 
sickness, disappointment, criticism, and insubordination, 
they were nearly ready to break up and scatter. 

As they went down Boston harbor to camp for ten 
days, on one of the islands, and learn to endure hard- 
ship, they made quite a showy and attractive appear- 
ance, in uniform suits, with a broad belt carrying a 
bayonet, knife, and axe. Now they were twenty-two 
different persons, haggard, soiled, and dejected, with 
many a Joseph's coat among them replacing the uni- 
form, and not much coveted by envious brothers. 

Here the company divided, and seven of them turned 
their backs on Oregon, among whom were Jacob and 
John, brothers of Captain Wyeth. The latter pushed 
forward and, with other mountain men who joined him, 
established Fort Hall on Snake River, about one hun- 
dred miles north of Salt Lake. The reader should fix 



84 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

this fort in his mind, for we shall have much to do with 
it in our narrative. The Hudson Bay Company at once 
established a rival post called Fort Boise, below Fort 
Hall, and easily ruined the enterprise of Mr. Wyeth by 
a sacrificing competition. 

In a memoir of Mr. Wyeth ^ to a Congressional Com- 
mittee he says that "experience has satisfied me that 
the entire weight of this Company will be made to bear 
on any trader who shall attempt to prosecute his busi- 
ness within its reach. . . . No sooner does an Amer- 
ican concern start in this region than one of these trad- 
ing parties is put in motion. A few years will make 
the country west of the mountains as completely Eng- 
lish as they can desire." 

Another person long conversant with affairs in Ore- 
gon, and of the United States navy, William A. Slocum, 
reported to the same Committee " that no individual en- 
terprise can compete with this immense foreign monop- 
oly established in our waters. . . . The Indians are 
taught to believe that no vessels but the Company's ships 
are allowed to trade in the river, and most of them are 
afraid to sell their skins but at Vancouver or Fort 
George." 

Hence it came about that the Americans west of the 
mountains at this time seldom exceeded two hundred, 
and they were beyond all cover of United States laws. 
No form of law, even the most prospective and shadowy, 
followed them. Their protection against man as well 
as brute was in their own hands. Yet around Vancou- 
ver alone the Hudson Bay Company had seven or eight 
hundred men. These were European, Canadian, half- 
breed, and Indian, but subject to the Fort. Over all the 
1 Report. House of Representatives, No. 101, February 16, J 839. 



WESTERN MEN ON THE OREGON TRAIL. 85 

region covered by that Company, Canadian law was ex- 
tended by act of Parliament. No post was beyond this 
code of laws, and no individual in the employ of the 
Company lacked it. 

While, therefore, the terms of joint occupation provided 
for equality between the two parties, the practical work- 
ing was a monopoly by one. Not only was the govern- 
ment of the Hudson Bay Company vital and active at 
every point where their employes were, but its magni- 
tude made it formidable. Beginning at Astoria, it cov- 
ered the heads of the Columbia, east to Salt Lake, north 
to the Athabasca and Saskatchawan, and so on to York 
Factory on Hudson Bay ; and still later, in 1839, Mr. 
Wyeth says that " the United States, as a nation, are 
unknown west of the mountains." As early as 1834 
the Hudson Bay Company had over two thousand men 
in the various branches of their business. The most of 
them had half-breed families ; and over all the Company 
had full authority, always injurious and often disastrous 
to all others who attempted to trade or settle in the coun- 
try. Americans were not allowed to traffic within sev- 
eral hundred miles of a Hudson Bay post ; and Simpson, 
agent, and for a long time governor of the Company, 
said they were " resolved, even at the cost of one hun- 
dred thousand pounds sterling, to expel the Americans 
from traffic on that coast." At this time they had over 
twenty posts. 

Possibly an American company, consolidated out of 
these we have mentioned, protected and patronized by 
the government, could have become a successful rival of 
the English one in Oregon. But it is not in the genius 
of our government to do such things. A gigantic monop- 
oly comes more naturally from a monarchical govern- 



86 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

ment, while our democratic theory leaves privilege and 
success to be divided as the fruit of individual toil and 
competition. As will be seen, this, rather than the mo- 
nopolies that are the gifts of kings, won the day. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE GREAT ENGLISH MISTAKE. 

The " British and Foreign Review" of 1844 made this 
frank and wide-reaching admission concerning the Hud- 
son Bay Company : " The interests of the Company 
are of course adverse to colonization. . . . The fur- 
trade has been hitherto the only channel for the advan- 
tageous investments of capital in those regions." This is 
an exact statement, by an English authority, of the fun- 
damental mistake of Great Britain, in her endeavors to 
secure Oregon. In the English view of the case, Ru- 
pert's Land, originally, and all wild land contiguous, 
and occupied by this Company, was reserved for fur, and 
the fur was reserved by charter of 1670 for the Hudson 
Bay Company. First and last and always, the end was 
the skin of a wild animal, and this Company had the del- 
egated sovereignty of Great Britain to control the coun- 
try for raising this animal, and the only and absolute 
right to catch and skin it. One outside the Company 
had no legal right to catch, buy, or sell the article. Any 
colony, cultivation, clearing, or residence was to be for- 
bidden and abated as an encroachment and infringement. 
The nature, extent, and absolutism of this monopoly 
can hardly be overstated. No one unconnected with 
the Company could " visit, haunt, frequent, trade, traf- 
fic, or adventure " in it. 

The charter covered the grand basin of Hudson Bay, 



88 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION-. 

and the grant of exclusive trade finally extended from 
the Canadas to the Arctic, and westward to the Pacific, 
embracing what the Company called " Indian coun- 
tries." Over so much of North America this monopoly 
of trade and monarchy of government extended, and 
everything was made subservient to the growth, capture, 
and sale of fur. The extent of the monopoly granted 
by Louis XIV. to Crozat was immense, embracing the 
valleys of the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri. But this 
grant of Charles II. to Prince Rupert was immensely 
more extensive. 

It was the interest and policy of the Hudson Bay 
Company to hold back all this country from settlement 
and civilization, and continue it in wilderness as a grand 
and private game preserve. Down the ages it was to be 
kept for the raising of beaver and muskrat, mink, bear, 
and otter. Its primeval solitudes were not to be in- 
vaded by white men, nor its silence of thousands of years 
to be broken, except as licensed men should go in qui- 
etly to bring out fur. At York Factory and the Norway 
House, Moose Fort and Fort Simpson, Pelley, Van- 
couver, and Garry, a little bustle and a Canadian 
boat-song were tolerated once or twice a year, by bat- 
teaux brigades and dog-trains. But the coming and 
going of these were as if by stealth, lest they scare the 
game ; and then silence settled down over those lone 
lands again, with the stillness and shadow of an eclipse. 
The call of herdsmen and the varied sounds of farm- 
work, the echo of mechanics and the sweet voices of 
village life, were withheld by royal charter from these 
regions. 

A missionary at Moose Factory writes : " A plan 
which I had devised for educating and training to some 



THE GREAT ENGLISH MISTAKE. 89 

acquaintance with agriculture native children, was dis- 
allowed. ... A proposal made for forming a small 
Indian village near Moose Factory was not acceded to ; 
and instead, permission only given to attempt the loca- 
tion of one or two old men, no longer fit for engaging 
in the chase, it being carefully and distinctly stated, by 
Sir George Simpson, that the Company would not give 
them even a spade toward commencing their new mode 
of life." 

Care was taken by the Company that local property 
should not be acquired by individuals, so as to form 
social and village centres and thus plant the germs of 
civilization. Their employes were not allowed to ac- 
quire any property or income beyond their salary. As 
agriculture and the gain of money by any private labor 
were forbidden, the products of the ground were scanty, 
and were furnished only from the gardens and fields of 
the officers, and for their tables. Up to the time when 
American missionaries entered Oregon in 1834, there 
was no extra supply of potatoes. It was a luxury for 
head men and distinguished visitors. The Company did 
not encourage the cultivation. 

As late as 1836, they opposed the introduction of 
cattle, because meat and beef tended to settlements and 
civilization. They had for themselves about a thousand 
head, but would not sell one to the Americans, of whom 
there were then only fifteen men in the territory. They 
would lend a cow, but required the calf to be returned. 
The next year an arrangement was made, and ten men 
with about sixteen hundred dollars went down to Cali- 
fornia to bring up a herd. The Hudson Bay men put 
all possible obstacles in the way, but the Americans 
brought up six hundred. On the way the Indians stole 



90 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

some, and suspicion was not wanting that they were 
procured to do it. 

In some instances, and after the Americans began to 
introduce farming, the Company allowed a few of its 
broken-down men to cultivate the ground about the 
Wallamette, but they reserved the right to call these 
men back at any time to their stations. The Company 
under no circumstances released a man in the country, 
but unless he would renew his engagement they re- 
turned him from whence he came — sent him out of 
the country. 

The plough and spade and milch cow, with a farm, 
under warranty deed from Great Britain, would dis- 
turb fur-bearing animals. Such a farm would soon 
have a neighbor, and then a neighborhood. Thus the 
beaver-dam might become a mill-dam, and mankind, 
instead of corporators and stockholders, would take pos- 
session of a country larger by one third than all Europe, 
and so the Hudson Bay Company be damaged. 

When Dr. Whitman and his missionary party were 
entering Oregon in 1836, they met at Walla Walla J. 
K. Townsend, a naturalist, sent out by a society in Phil- 
adelphia to collect specimens of plants and birds. He 
said to Dr. Whitman : " The Company will be glad to 
have you in the country, and your influence to improve 
their servants and their native wives and children. As 
to the Indians you have come to teach, they do not 
want them to be any more enlightened. The Company 
now have absolute control over them, and that is all 
they require." 

Christian labors among the Indians, by different sects, 
have been tolerated, and at times encouraged, when the 
purpose was to bring them up from their pagan state to 



THE GREAT ENGLISH MISTAKE. 91 

a civilized condition, but they have been discouraged 
whenever the result tended to elevate the Indians t^ 
either principles or habits inconsistent with the labors 
which the Company might require. A moral tone, 
family ties, and local property, would damage the divi- 
dends of the Hudson Bay stock, if developed very far, 
and therefore Christianizing influences were not toler- 
ated beyond certain points. 

The "Colonial (English) Magazine" of 1843 puts 
this matter with surprising simplicity and directness : 
" By a strange and unpardonable oversight of the local 
officers of the Company, missionaries of the United 
States were allowed to take religious charge of the 
population, and these artful men lost no time," etc. 

An illustration will show how necessary it was to 
check the development of a moral and Christian tone 
before it endangered the profits of the Company. Mr. 
Slocum of the United States navy reported to Congress 
on Indian slavery in Oregon : " The price of a slave 
varies from five to fifteen blankets. Women are valued 
higher than men. If a slave dies within six months of 
the purchase, the seller returns one half the purchase- 
money. . . . Many instances have occurred where a 
man has sold his own child. . . . The slaves are gener- 
ally employed to cut wood, hunt and fish for the families 
of the men employed by the Hudson Bay Company, and 
are ready for any extra work. Each man of the trapping 
parties has from two to three slaves, who assist to hunt 
and take care of the horses and camp. They thereby 
save the Company the expense of employing at least 
double the number of men that would otherwise be 
required on these excursions. . . . As long as the Hud- 
son Bay Company permit their servants to hold slaves, 
the institution of slavery will be perpetuated." 



92 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

The servants of the Company purchased Indian women, 
^and half-breed families were raised. The Company- 
found it for their profit to encourage their employes 
thus to marry, as it attached them to localities, and made 
them contented in a wilderness home, while the off- 
spring, as the children of a slave-mother, were them- 
selves slaves, and became both profitable and inexpen- 
sive to the Company. The mildest thing that can be 
said of this is that the Company were slave-propagandist 
by approbation and proxy. But then 

" Slaves cannot breathe in England ; if their lungs 
Receive our air, that moment they are free. 
That 's noble, and bespeaks a nation proud 
And jealous of the blessing." 

In this struggle for Oregon the great English mistake 
grows more and more obvious. To understand it more 
plainly we must inquire as to the amount, quality, and 
condition of the English blood introduced. Of course 
foreign blood, either European or American, would 
finally prevail. If British North America was to be- 
come a civilized and worthy part of the British Empire, 
English blood must do the work. Here arises a great 
surprise. After an occupation of its domain by the 
Hudson Bay Company for nearly two centuries it was 
found that the number of Europeans who had devoted 
their lives to that country by residence in it was ex- 
ceedingly small. It is doubtful whether, between the 
date of charter, 1670, and 1840, as many Europeans 
had gone in there, as have sometimes landed as immi- 
grants, at New York, in a single twenty-four hours. 

Those who go in for the Company are almost always 
lads or young men, and they go for life. Older persons 
could not enter thoroughly into the interests of the 



THE GREAT ENGLISH MISTAKE. 93 

Company, and adapt themselves fully and happily to 
the new and strange life. Invariably almost, they go 
into the service unmarried, and then halve the blood of 
their children with the native Indian races. Those who 
reach prominent positions, do so when past middle life, 
but find that they have no inclination to return to the 
European or American life, which their birth and child- 
hood offered them. The domain of the Company has 
not only given them a fortune, but frontier or wilder- 
ness tastes, character, and manhood. And the fortune 
is ample only in the place where it has been gained. 
The millionaire of the forest would be a poor man at 
the Astor or London West End. For many reasons 
the retired fur men remain in the country, and become 
the noblesse of the forest — hyphens between the unciv- 
ilized and civilized world. The lowest grade imported 
servant has netted probably his one hundred dollars a 
year, the clerk his five hundred, the chief trader five 
times as much, and the chief factor perhaps five thou- 
sand dollars, with the incidental support of his tawny 
family. 

While in active employment at forts, factories, and 
posts, these isolated communities of full and half Euro- 
pean stock present a very peculiar class of English sub- 
jects. The description of them by Washington Irving 
is as good yet as it was faithful to fact a hundred years 
before he wrote it. " The French merchant at his trad- 
ing post in those primitive days of Canada was a kind 
of commercial patriarch. . . . He had his clerks, canoe- 
men, and retainers of all kinds, who lived with him on 
terms of perfect sociability, always calling him by his 
Christian name. He had his harem of Indian beauties 
and his troops of half-breed children ; nor was there 



94 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

ev«r wanting a louting train of Indians, hanging aboui 
the establishment, eating and drinking at his expense 
in the intervals of their hunting expeditions." 

Manitoba became a favorite residence for some of the 
retired servants of the company. They long cherished 
the desire and purpose to return to their native lands to 
spend their closing days. But man grows old but once, 
and cannot foretell his experiences and preferences. 
Their desires and purposes withered with the lapse of 
years, and the influence of family ties formed in the 
country, and their long indulged habits in the unre- 
strained life of the border, finally prevailed, and they 
constituted an aristocracy of the wilderness in Manitoba. 

This is the famous Lord Selkirk grant, the scene of 
bloody strife and legal struggles between the Hudson 
Bay and Northwest Companies, prior to their union in 
1821. Yet even there, in the only colony or settlement 
proper, that seemed in 1840 to show personal ownership 
in land, or hint toward a general colonization of the do- 
main of the Company, there were but about six thou- 
sand persons, and the most of them were Indians and 
half breeds ; very few of them were Europeans. 

Three years before, when the Company was asking 
for the renewal of its charter, it admitted frankly that 
its efforts to settle the country embraced only a scanty 
supply of aged and worn-out servants. Those of Euro- 
pean blood in the country, all told, commissioned and 
non-commissioned, from Hudson Bay to the Pacific, 
and from the United States to the Arctic, would hardly 
exceed three thousand. The others in the employ of 
the Company were about one fourth Sandwich Island- 
ers, one fourth Orkney men, and the rest Canadian, 
Indian, and half-bloods — material scanty in its best 



THE GREAT ENGLISH MISTAKE. 95 

quality, European, and miserable in its worst quality, 
for extending civilization. Yet it was as good and as 
abundant as the desires and plans of the Company de- 
manded. 

Suppose we make an opening here and there, and 
send glances in, that we may see to what extent the 
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have gone up into 
that vast, weird land of fur animals. Two centuries, and 
specially the last two, are supposed to do something 
with a region larger than Europe. In the opening of 
each June the Company's ships drop down the Thames, 
and in August drop anchor at York Factory on Hud- 
son Bay. Now they have two weeks, if plans work 
well, for each to discharge their cargoes of goods, take 
in furs, and leave that great inland sea before the Arc- 
tic winter closes it for another nine months. Waiting 
then till summer returns, the goods then hurry on to 
Lake Winnipeg, and down to the Arctic and over to the 
Yukon and Pacific. Carts and batteaux make the te- 
dious trips with the freight, and the agent follows on 
the first hard winter snows, with dogs, almost as a tele- 
gram chases up an express bundle. At the end of six 
years the bill of goods from London is responded to by 
bales of furs. Over that dreary, inland line of two 
years from York Factory, the outside world is hauled 
in by dogs. Right and left from the sledge trail, as on 
branch roads, the life and stir of mankind are reported 
to lonely trading-posts — handfuls of hermits, eremites, 
desert-men. 

At the extremity of one of these antennae of a moving 
world, the chief trader, says Robinson in his " Great Fur 
Land," " has control of a district in many instances as 
large as a European kingdom. . . . He directs the 



96 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

course of trade, erects new establishments, orders the 
necessary outfits for the year, suggests needed reforms 
to the council, and in his capacity of chief magistrate of 
his principality, rules supreme." What a life those head 
traders must have — frontier pickets of an uncivilized 
commerce ! They have no companionship, and little 
that is congenial till they decivilize themselves, and 
then have no neighbors but Indians ! A dog-train 
leaves Fort Garry, and for one hundred and twenty 
days it glides over the silent plains, and for as many 
nights it sleeps under those northern stars — but little 
less unchanging than the business that runs the sledge. 
The trip ends at La Pierre's, on Methy Portage, three 
thousand miles away ! How those solitary outposts of 
white men on the upper Yukon must welcome the dogs 
and news from the living, stirring, talking world of one 
year more ! 

The home mail has been a year on the way to those 
most northern posts, and the file of newspapers for the 
year preceding the start is carefully laid away, and each 
number brought out and read two years from the date 
of its printing ! Formerly the Montreal " Gazette " was 
the only paper forwarded, since the copy of a second 
would add undue weight to the sledge. When the 
sledge arrives from Pembina at old Fort Good Hope, 
on the lower Mackenzie, the dogs have hauled it as far 
as from London to Quebec ; and when their howls 
break the stillness of twelve months, by switching off 
to the Rocky Mountain House, they have run about 
twice the distance from New York to New Orleans. 
How those Arctic inland St. Helenas of voluntary ex- 
iles welcome, and question, and feast, and enforce hos- 
pitality on the incoming man ! The joy is almost as 



THE GREAT ENGLISH MISTAKE. yj 

if Noah should speak a secoud ark on the wilderness of 
waters. 

The charter commits the government of that country 
to the Company with the sole condition that the govern- 
ment shall not be " repugnant to the laws, statutes, and 
customs of England." Robinson gives us an amusing il- 
lustration of one process of government : " When the 
Indians proved refractory around one of the Company's 
trading-posts, the trader in charge would wind up his 
music-box, get his magic lantern ready, and take out his 
galvanic battery. Placing the handle of the latter in- 
strument in the grasp of some stalwart chief, he would 
administer a terrific shock to his person and warn him 
that far out upon the plains he could inflict the same 
medicine upon him." This process of administration is 
not supposed to be " repugnant " to any act of Parlia- 
ment, or to any of the " customs " of the common law 
of Great Britain. But it shows the process of civili- 
zation in that large portion of her Majesty's dominion. 
It also indicates by what slips and mistakes Oregon was 
lost to the Crown. 

One species of amusement for the middle class shows 
the same thing, as described by the same English au- 
thor. It is a half-breed ball, when dancing, eating, drink- 
ing, sleeping, and general rough carousal run through 
three days and nights without intermission. " From 
time to time, as many as are requisite to keep up the 
festivities are awakened, and being forthwith revived 
with raw spirits, join in the dance with renewed vigor.'* 

The hunting and trapping are done in the cold season, 
and annually at the close of March or in early April, 
when an occasional hour of softening air and snow gives 
hint of coming spring, the Indians leave their winter 



98 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

trapping-grounds, and gather about the posts to trade 
ofE their furs and obtain their scanty returns. This in- 
vasion of Indians even and their inroad on trading- 
house life are welcomed because they break the dull 
routine and solemn sameness of simply protracted exis- 
tence. Through the narrow and angular passage to the 
grated store-room window, admitting for trade but two 
Indians at a time, the miserable aborigine passes in his 
furs. It may be his fine silver fox skins, worth two 
hundred dollars, for which he bargains in return the pair 
of three point blankets worth fifteen dollars. Then 
" the high contracting parties," mutually satisfied, sepa- 
rate for another year. 

This great trade of the Company, in all its details, 
has carried out of the country in two centuries, by 
estimation, one hundred and twenty millions of dollars 
in fur, reckoned on a gold basis. Yet they have so 
protected the wilderness against civilization, and propa- 
gated the fur-bearing animals, and apprenticed the In- 
dian generations in their succession to trapping and hunt- 
ing, that the average yearly catch has not diminished. 

This is a suggestive fact. The old thirteen colonies 
exterminated wild animals, under bounty, that they 
might build up Albany and Bangor and Pittsburg, 
Hartford and Buffalo. They gave men, women and 
children preference and protection on the wild borders, 
over bears and silver foxes. They discarded gins, traps, 
and deadfalls where Manchester and Nashua and Low- 
ell and Paterson are. They esteemed an ox above a 
buffalo and a sheep above a deer. Yet in the crucible 
of this Company in their last analysis of half a conti- 
nent for highest values, population, civilization, agricul- 
ture, mining, neighborhood and city building have been 



THE GREAT ENGLISH MISTAKE. 99 

thrown off as slag and dross, and only fur remains. 
Six generations of " Adventurers of England trading 
in Hudson Bay " and as many generations of trappers 
have been on the grand North American hunt, and the 
average yearly catch does not fall off. 

In 1870 the posts of this Company on the Saskatch- 
ewan alone furnished thirty thousand buffalo robes, In- 
dian-tanned. As an Indian woman can dress about ten 
a year, polygamy is common in that valley. A tract 
of country can be marked off" through this valley, from 
the Red River to the Pacific, as good for wheat as 
Michigan, where a dozen starving Irelands could be 
located without crowding each other, and where the 
people could work their own land with comfort and eat 
their own wheat to repletion. For two hundred years 
Irish immigrants could not "visit, haunt, frequent, 
trade, traffic, or adventure " in that splendid domain of 
Great Britain. They would disturb the beaver. 

It is due to the Hudson Bay Company that Eng- 
land was kept so long in ignorance of the extent and 
worth to her subjects of that magnificent belt westward 
from the Red River country. With natural advantages 
vastly superior to those of Canada and equal to those of 
the northwestern states of the United States, the Com- 
pany held the region in dark reserve, and the home gov- 
ernment was robbed of a colonial growth, while she lost 
her own emigrants by the hundreds of thousands when 
they settled in the United States. 

The great English mistake, by which Oregon was 
lost to Great Britain, is shown at no time more clearly 
than in the incidents and policies of the time now under 
review. Let two pictures be here taken in contrast 
and for illustration. The great fall hunt for buffalo 



100 OREGON: TUB STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

provided the almost entire living of many tribes for the 
year, and much of the income to the Company from the 
region west of Lake Winnipeg. Those annual hunts 
were probably the most magnificent and picturesque 
that were ever followed by any people, if we take into 
account the majestic prairie hunting -fields, the dig- 
nity and multitude of the game, and the numbers of 
men, women, and children who made up the camps. 
Robinson's description in his " Great Fur Land " needs 
no variation. 

The rendezvous is usually on the borders of some 
large river. " From two thousand to twenty-five hun- 
dred carts line the banks ; three thousand animals graze 
within sight upon the prairie ; a thousand men, with 
their following of women and children, find shelter un- 
der carts and in the tents and tepees of the encamp- 
ment ; the smoke of the camp almost obscures the sun ; 
and the babel of sounds arising from the laughing, 
neighing, barking multitude, resembles the rush of many 
waters." 

This vast throng keep Sabbath forenoon devoutly, 
with priest and ceremonial, and the afternoon is given to 
racing, gaming, sports and plays. In due time, under 
trained leaders, and with the science and strategy of a 
battle, the hunters steal on the vast herd of lumbering 
buffalo and the slaughter begins. The earth trembles 
in the rush of the animals and their pursuers, dust and 
smoke cloud the air for miles, the roar of mingled 
sounds is heard far off at the camp of women and carts, 
and the bloody battle-field with struggling and dead 
buffalo spreads out indefinitely on the prairie and 
through the ravines. 

After such a hunt, and mainly for robes, " the plain 



THE GREAT ENGLISH MISTAKE. 101 

for miles is covered with the carcasses of buffalo, from 
which nothing has been taken, save the hides and 
tongues, and it may be, the more savory portions of the 
hump.". 

The region of these slaughterings for robes, lying 
about the prairie heads of the Missouri, ovei- to the 
Saskatchawan, and up its valleys, is magnificent wheat 
land, and was monopolized and held back from cabin 
and plow for this crop of buffalo. 

This is one picture. At the same time American im- 
migrants, with no monopoly, and individually carrying 
civilization to a farther point, were hurrying the rem- 
nants of buffalo herds over the Mississippi, and planting 
Indiana and Illinois and Wisconsin on the great eastern 
pastures of that animal. Iowa and Minnesota soon fol- 
lowed, and the Northern Pacific railroad now heads the 
march of civilization and empire to our extreme west. 
So up to the very boundary the United States began 
to raise wheat and plant cities, while over the line the 
Hudson Bay Company went on skinning buffalo for the 
London market, thirty thousand a year. The emigrant 
wagon, cultivation, mechanics, a various trade, and gen- 
eral civilization were kept on the American side of the 
boundary. The two policies stand out in the two pict- 
ures, and the two forces press westward. Which will 
win Oregon ? 

When this fur policy came into competition with the 
colonial policy of the Republic, the great English mis- 
take became apparent. Trappers and Indian traders 
could outrun immigrant wagons. Yet eventually the 
plow would overtake them and finally obtain a war- 
ranty deed of the land. If the English government 
saw the mistake, it was not till it was too late. The 



102 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

Company could hold its policy and monopoly till 1870. 
At this date the territory of the Company, or Rupert's 
Land, merged in the Crown. The monopoly of trade 
in lands outside, commonly called Indian Countries, and 
granted in 1821, ended in 1859. 

Perhaps never in history has there been a better il- 
lustration of the danger and damage to the public of a 
chartered monopoly. When a corporation becomes too 
powerful for the government, the design or end of that 
government is a failure. In this case a private interest 
was enabled to shut off from the Crown the settlement 
and commerce and profits of millions of square miles. 
It shut off the kingdom of Great Britain from efficient 
growth in North America. If the possession of the 
Hudson Bay Company had reverted to the Crown at 
the end of a hundred and fifty years, it would have been 
returned, as received, a wilderness. To know, in com' 
parison, what might have been, one needs only to cross 
the boundary line and notice the northern tier of states 
lying just south of that line. 

The great English mistake, therefore, was double. It 
was a mistake in attempting to take and hold Oregon 
by trapping, as against colonizing : and it was a mistake 
to sacrifice so largely the English interests in America 
to a corporate monopoly. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

FOUR FLAT-HEAD INDIANS IN ST. LOUIS. 

Four Flat-Head Indians had come in 1832 from 
Oregon, three thousand miles, on a special mission of 
their own devising. Indians were common visitors, al- 
most common loungers in St. Louis at that time. They 
glided about quite frequently and freely in moccasin and 
blanket among the six thousand Americans, French Cre- 
oles, fur men, half-breeds, boatmen, and border adventur- 
ers of that frontier town. It was common to see wigwams 
not far from the city, and almost the entire region above, 
on the west bank of the river, was Indian ground, though 
the river belt was shared in common by the most ven- 
turesome and irrepressible white pioneers. Even as late 
as 1840, I frequently met on the streets the stately, si- 
lent, louting red man, trailing his blanket and burdening 
his squaw, or saw him crouching over his scanty fire of 
kindlings and drift-wood, in the then still noted grounds 
of the American Fur Company. For weeks together 
Indians would have their squalid camps about Illinois 
Town, and in the bottoms toward the Big Mound and 
down to the romantic Cohokia Falls. 

The four poor Flat- Heads, therefore, attracted no 
special attention. Only the expert in Indian signs and 
wood-craft could have marked their tribe and^distaut 
home, specially as coming over the plains the Sioux had 
tricked them out in gaudy and generous trappings of 
that tribe. 



104 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

Far up Clark's River, and central in what is now 
Washington Territory, beyond mountain fastnesses, they 
had heard from an American trapper of the white man's 
God, and of a spirit home, better than the hunting- 
grounds of the blessed, and of a Book that told truly of 
the Great Spirit, and of that home and the trail to it. 
The report is that the Iroquois had given to them some 
of the Christian teachings which had become theirs in 
Colonial New York ; and very likely some of the mount- 
ain trappers who left the white frontier and rude clear- 
ing, and may be the Book and family altar long years 
before, had done the same thing. The Indians, always 
religiously inclined, listened, and then inquired, and then 
talked it over. 

It does not require much fancy to follow them in 
their rude processes of investigation. In those ancient 
groves which no axe had mutilated, God's first temples, 
or where solemn and sublime mountains shut them in 
like grand old cathedrals, we see them sitting about 
their dusky camp-fires. They think much and say but 
little of the white man's God and Book — stealthy wor- 
shippers — feeling after the true God, if haply they may 
find him. 

Then they turn to the chase again, and feed on the red 
deer and big-horn ; and renew their scanty wardrobe 
from the wolf, and the grizzly and silver-tipped bear, 
and pile away the beaver for the Hudson Bay man, and 
a new flint-lock, or three point blanket. The Rocky 
Mountain winter threatens them, and they follow the 
buffalo, whose instinct has led him north, for a warm 
retreat on those plains and among the vast valleys that 
the Pacific trade-winds keep perpetually warm and 
green. With the return of spring we see them coming 



FOUR FLAT-HEAD INDIANS IN ST. LOUIS. 105 

back to the old camping-grounds of the summer, laden 
with furry spoils, and with a burden of thinking, too, 
about the white man's God and Book. They stretch 
their skinny hands over the light blaze and talk myste- 
riously, two or three of them, here and there. Now they 
take up the theme more freely in the tepee, and at 
length it comes into the high council of opinions and 
plans and action. They must know about this thing. 
Their dim hereafter needs lighting up. Perhaps it is 
the God and the Book of the pale-faces that make them 
great in their big canoes on the great waters of the 
setting sun. They must know more. It was gravely 
and anxiously settled that some of their number should 
go on the long trail to the rising of the sun to find the 
Book and brinoj back the light. 

Two old braves were selected, one of them a sachem, 
for their wisdom and prudence, and well proved love for 
the tribe. Two young braves were added, for strength, 
and endurance, and daring, in any perils along the un- 
known path of many moons. In the silence of true 
heroism, that asks no trumpet at the opening, but only 
the crown of success at the close, the four passed off 
into the forest, and over the rivers, and out on the 
prairies. This was an improvement on the Macedonian 
call. They went themselves to get what they wanted. 

What route did they take ? Down Clark to Lewis 
River, and then up to Fort Hall, and so on to the Mis- 
souri ? Or, avoiding the terrible Black-Feet of the 
Upper Plains, did they go down the Great Basin of 
Salt Lake, and strike the Santa Fe trail by the Gunni- 
son region, and so to Bent's Fort on the Arkansas ? 
No record of the route of the four Flat-Heads has 
found a place in literature. 



106 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

We think of the hostile tribes through whose territory 
they went those thousand miles, traveling by night and 
resting by day ; we note the many interviews they had 
with doubtful bands, and the counsel and courses they 
took from those whom they could trust. What little 
fires they kindled in secluded glens, sleeping afterward, 
while one kept watch as silently as the stars watched 
the four ! Now they feasted on venison, or mountain 
sheep, or antelope ; and now, too prudent to hunt, it 
was beaver or muskrat, no unsavory dish at a camp-fire, 
when one has for sauce a backwoods appetite. 

If they were captives, and afterward escaped prison- 
ers, no record tells of it. Perhaps, with a mystic con- 
fidence in the white man's God whom they were seeking, 
they avoided perils by daring them. They covered their 
track to foes, told their purpose to friends, made a light 
burden of their hardships, and kept their fears behind 
them, like true pilgrims of the Banyan kind. 

By whatever route of travel they journeyed, many 
moons came and went, we know not how many, till they 
arrived at St. Louis, the great tepee of white men. They 
wondered over the big lodges of wood, and brick, and 
stone ; they marveled silently at the great fire-canoes, 
that went up and down the river without paddles ; and 
the abundance of fine things on the streets and in the 
stores confused them. With very few words, and a step 
that no one heard, they glided up and down and in and 
out among streets and stores, and studied the whole. 
But in this world of new sights, and in a tumult of 
thoughts, their sacred errand was uppermost, and they 
must deliver it to one man. 

Twenty-seven years before General William Clark 
had been over the mountains, and left his name on their 



j: 



FOUR FLAT-HEAD INDIANS IN ST. LOUIS. 107 

river, and their old men had seen him or known of him. 
Born in Virginia, and emigrating at a tender age to 
Kentucky, he had much to do with Indians on " the 
dark and bloody ground," and just at the close of the 
century, while St. Louis was in Spanish dominions, he 
took up his abode in that city. He was associated with 
Captain Meriwether Lewis in the overland expedition 
to Oregon, and then became known, by reputation, to 
the Flat-Heads ; the success of that daring survey was 
due much to his consummate knowledge of Indian 
character. After his return he was made brigadier-gen- 
eral of the Upper Louisiana, and was active and efficient 
in the Indian wars that harassed the western borders 
through the early years of the present century. He was 
territorial governor of Missouri till it became a state in 
1821, from which time to his death, in 1838, he was 
Indian Superintendent with headquarters at St. Louis. 

An incident will introduce the man and his times to 
us, and show what the early settlers in Ohio, Indiana, 
and Illinois had to encounter in laying the foundations 
of those three noble states. General Clark found him- 
self, on one occasion, with few men and scanty supplies, 
in a post surrounded by warlike and haughty savages. 
They apparently knew his reduced condition and were 
disposed to cut him and his men off by a treacherous 
massacre. A council was called with the Indians in the 
fort, and, contrary to all usage and good intention, they 
came in fully armed, not only the leading ones, but the 
young and fiery braves. The General was in no condi- 
tion to resent it. At the lono^ council-table the inso- 
lent chief occupied the end opposite to Clark, and the 
whole air and manner of the savages made him and 
his few white men feel that they were doomed. The 



108 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

chief was silent and sullen, and at length drew from 
under his blanket a rattlesnake's skin stuffed with pow- 
der and ball, and threw it toward the General. It was 
a declaration of war, and every white man felt that he 
might any moment hear the war-whoop and see the 
brandished tomahawks. The Indians appeared to be 
only waiting for a signal from their chief to commence 
a butchery. General Clark had in his hand a kind of 
riding-stick with which he turned the snake's skin over 
and over, drawing it nearer to him. All was still as 
death, while they knew that their lives hung on daring. 
By and by he succeeded in coiling it around his whip- 
stick, when with a sudden motion he flirted it back 
to the haughty chief, and said with dignity and bold- 
ness : " If the Indians want war, they can have war." 

The confidence and prompt acceptance of the chal- 
lenge led the Indians to think that recruits were at hand 
to relieve their beleaguered victims, and they quietly 
withdrew from the council and from the fort. This in- 
cident was related to me three years after the General's 
death by the gentleman to whom he told it, and I think 
has never before been in print. 

This was the man to whom the four Flat-Heads must 
open their business, as the great chief of the Missouris. 
Very likely the General thought they had come to talk 
of a war, or a treaty, or of lands, or of beaver. Their 
religious pur[)ose did not much interest him, for they 
were only Indians, and beyond their furs and lands and 
wars they had never had much to win the attention of 
white men. 

How long they were in St. Louis does not appear, 
only that they were there long enough for the two old 
men to die, and for one of the younger to contract dis- 



FOUR FLAT-HEAD INDIANS IN ST. LOUIS. 109 

eases of which he died, on his return, at the mouth of 
the Yellowstone. They made known distinctly the fact 
that they had come their long journey to get the white 
man's Book, which would tell them of the white man's 
God and heaven. 

In what was then a Roman Catholic city it was not 
easy to do this, and officers only were met. It has 
not been the policy or practice of that church to give 
the Bible to the people, whether Christian or pagan. 
They have not thought it wise or right. Probably no 
Christian enterprises in all the centuries have shown more 
self-sacrifice, heroism, foreseen suffering, and intense re- 
ligious devotion than the laborers of that church, from 
1520, to give its type of Christianity to the natives of 
North America. But it was oral, ceremonial, and pic- 
torial. In the best of their judgment, and in the depths 
of their convictions, they did not think it best to reduce 
native tongues to written languages, and the Scriptures 
to the vernacular of any tribe. Survey three centuries, 
from the first Indian missions in Florida to the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence, around the Hudson Bay basin, and to the 
Pacific, and on either side of the wild mountain ranges, 
from the Arctic to Panama, it is doubtful whether the 
Romanists ever put into an Indian tongue, and through a 
tribe, an amount of Scripture equal to the shortest gospel. 

We, of another branch of the church, honor the devo- 
tion, daring, and sacrifice, the expenditure of treasure 
and human life which they have lavished in their con- 
tinental fields. We as deeply mourn the mistake that 
did not imbed Christianity in the language, and a young 
literature, for the poor Indians. * 

In that old Indian and papal city the poor Flat-Heads 
could not find " the Book." They were fed to feasting, 



110 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

they were provided with wigwam ground, they were 
blanketed and ornamented. They were armed and en- 
tertained cordially and abundantly. St. Louis must al- 
ways have the palm for that kindness to tlie red men. 
Its traditions, earliest history, trade, growth, and some 
of its blood, run that way. But the heart that had come 
three thousand miles of toil and peril, to be filled with 
better ideas of God and of the long trail into the here- 
after, could not be satisfied with all this. 

Their mission was a failure. Sad it is that it has so 
commonly proved thus for the Indians where they have 
sought the highest good from the whites, while we have 
pressed the gospel successfully on pagan and even can- 
nibal foreigners. They therefore prepared to go back to 
their dark mountain home, and bear to their tribe the 
burden of disappointment. Of course there must be a 
ceremonial leave-taking, and the council lodge was the 
house of the American Fur Company. 

General Clark whs then the great sachem of the whites, 
a true and generous friend of the Indians. He received 
the farewell address of the two surviving Flat-Heads. 
It requires no fancy of mine, but only memory, to sketch 
that audience room of furs and robes and the few hear- 
ers. As to the speech, it is apparently as hard for the 
American language as for the American people to do an 
Indian justice: — 

" I came to you over a trail of many moons from the 
setting sun. You were the friend of my fathers who 
have all gone the long way. I came with one eye part- 
ly opened, for more light for my people, who sit in dark- 
ness. I go back with t)oth eyes closed. How can I go 
back blind, to my blind people ? I made my way to you 
with strong arms, through many enemies and strange 



FOUR FLAT-HEAD INDIANS IN ST. LOUIS. HI 

lands, that I might carry back much to them. I go back 
with both arms broken and empty. The two fathers 
who came with us — the braves of many winters and 
wars — we leave asleep here by your great water and 
wigwam. They were tired in many moons, and their 
moccasins wore out. My people sent me to get the 
white man's Book of Heaven. You took me where you 
allow your women to dance, as we do not ours, and 
the Book was not there. You took me where they wor- 
ship the Great Spirit with candles, and the Book was 
not there. You showed me the images of good spirits 
and pictures of the good land beyond, but the Book was 
not among them to tell us the way. I am going back 
the long, sad trail to my people of the dark land. You 
make my feet heavy with burdens of gifts, and my moc- 
casins will grow old in carrying them, but the Book is 
not among them. When I tell my poor, blind people, 
after one more snow, in the big council, that I did not 
bring the Book, no word will be spoken by our old men 
or by our young braves. One by one they will rise up 
and go out in silence. My people will die in darkness, 
and they will go on the long path to the other hunting- 
grounds. No white man will go with them and no white 
man's Book, to make the way plain. I have no more 
words." 

The grounds and rooms and furs of that scene are all 
fresh in my memory, and it does not require much of a 
fancy to see the group and hear the speeches and wit- 
ness the sad and silent departure of the two remaining 
Flat-Head Indians. A steamer of the American Fur 
Company was just starting for the upper Missouri. 
This was the first " fire-canoe " that ever made the long 
trip of twenty-two hundred miles, past the Maudan and 



112 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

Other tribes and villages, to the Company's post at the 
mouth of the Yellowstone. The two Indians took that 
steamer, and with them there went, also, George Catlin 
— the Indian historian, biographer, and painter, who in 
due time returned and went up to Pittsburg. 

As we follow this incident history becomes romance. 
That speech, more impressive and sad than Logan's, be- 
cause it takes hold of the world to come in its mournful 
refrain — "the Book was not there" — had a sympa- 
thetic hearer. A young clerk in the office witnessed 
the interview and noted its painful end. With some 
Christian sympathy for those benighted children of the 
mountains, he detailed an account of the affair to his 
friends at Pittsburg. When Catlin returned there they 
showed the letter to him, and proposed to publish it to 
the world in order to secure some missionary action in 
behalf of the Flat-Head tribe. Catlin replied that there 
must be a mistake as to the object of that Indian visit 
to St. Louis, and its failure, for the two Flat- Heads went 
up to the Yellowstone with him, and they said nothing of 
all this on the boat, so far as he heard. Let the publi- 
cation of the letter be delayed till he could write to Gen- 
eral Clark, and know the facts in the case. The reply 
from the General came at length : " It is true ; that was 
the only object of their visit and it failed." Then Cat- 
lin said : " Give the letter to the world." 

In his " Indian Letters, Number Forty-Eight," Catlin 
thus speaks of this matter : " When I first heard the re- 
port of this extraordinary mission across the mountains, 
I could scarcely believe it ; but on consulting with Gen- 
eral Clark I was fully convinced of the fact. . . . They 
had been told that our religion was better than theirs, 
and that they would all be lost if they did not embrace 



FOUR FLAT-HEAD INDIANS IN ST. LOUIS. 113 

it." And afterward, in 1836, when the Rev. H. H. 
Spalding and wife were on their way to Oregon as mis- 
sionaries, they met Mr. Catlin in Pittsburg, who detailed 
to them these incidents and many others. Especially 
he assured them that white women could not be carried 
over the mountains : " The hostile Indians, that hover 
about the convoy, would fight against any odds, to cap- 
ture them." 

It may here be added that Catlin enriched his Indian 
Gallery with the portraits of these two Indians. They 
are numbers two hundred and seven and two hundred 
and eight, in his collection. In form, features, and ex- 
pression they are more attractive than most Indian por- 
traits. They were of the Nez Perces branch of the Flat- 
Head tribe, but do not show the flattened head, because 
this band had abstained from that barbarous usage. 
They stand forth, in the pictures, in the rich robes and 
trappings which the friendly Sioux had bestowed, and 
they show, too, as originators in a custom of modern 
civilization, since their hair is so far " banged " as to 
cover one third of the forehead. 

But though only one lived to return and he carried 
back a disappointment, the mission of the Four Flat- 
Head Indians to St. Louis was not a failure. That peo- 
ple, it is true, sat in the gray dawn of a possible day. 
But night shut in again for a time. The little captive 
Jewess overheard the sad story of her leprous master Naa- 
man, and the outcome was his healing. What that clerk 
overheard between blanketed Indians and General Clark 
was a divine pivot. The poor Indians did not see it, 
nor the fur-trading white man, yet on it much Indian 
destiny and all of Oregon's turned. The result was one 
of the most romantic chapters in American History. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

" A QUART OF SEED WHEAT." 

The Americans struck Oregon just where the English 
failed, in -the line of settlements and civilization. One 
carried in the single man and the other the family; 
one, his traps and snares, the other, his seed wheat, oats 
and potatoes; one counted his muskrat nests, and the 
other his hills of corn ; one shot an Indian for killing a 
wild animal out of season, and the other paid bounty on 
the wolf and bear ; one took his newspaper from the dog- 
mail, twenty-four or thirty-six months from date, and the 
other carried in the printing-press ; one hunted and traded 
for what he could carry out of the country, the other 
planted and builded for what he could leave in it for his 
children. In short, the English trader ran his birch and 
batteaux up the streams and around the lakes to bring 
out furs and peltries, while the American immigrant 
hauled in, with his rude wagon, the nineteenth century, 
and came back loaded with Oregon for the American 
Union. 

It was the old European story over again. Spain, 
France, and Great Britain did not make plantations in 
America for the sake of America or for the colonists, 
but for chartered monopolies and the home governments. 
The colonists were as laborers on wages, or as hired 
agents who must make regular returns. So the &ic vos 
non vohis of Virgil was the English Bucolic and Georgic 



"A QUART OF SEED WEE AT." 115 

of North America. By such a policy Great Britain lost 
her thirteen colonies, and afterward Oregon. Since the 
United States became a nation we have added, from 
what was under the Spanish flag, what would make 
Spain of to-day five times, and from French dominion 
what would equal France four and a half times. For 
the loss of so much realm in the New World they are 
indebted to their feudal system and chartered monopo- 
lies. The development of their possessions in this coun- 
try was made an impossibility. 

The Franco-Spanish Louisiana and the northern sec- 
tions of New Spain felt the tendency imparted by the 
United States, and when the home governments held 
them back, as feudal retainers, they naturally gravitated 
toward the young Republic. In pursuit of the same 
policy England failed to take Oregon, since nothing 
runs the boundaries of sovereignty in a wild country 
like wagon wheels. The plough and fireside, hoe and 
bridge are more powerful than a corps of civil engineers 
in determining metes and bounds. 

In watching the international battle, therefore, in 
which the prize is that magnificent Pacific section, we 
begin to see families and agriculture and a mixed trade 
taking the field, with here and there a schoolhouse and 
a church as permanent fortifications. It was in eastern 
blood from time primeval thus to push into new lands 
and keep at the front of a progressive race with the 
leading and crowning qualities of a family home. 

Few men did more to shape New England than John 
Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts. While 
yet in England, and wishing to leave his country home 
for a residence in or near London, he wrote to his son, 
1627, to find a house for him, saying: "I would ba 



116 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

neere churche and some good schoole." After he ar- 
rived ill America, in 1630, and till his death in 1649, he 
aimed thus to locate all New England families. His 
policy and life went to make the colonial law of Massa- 
chusetts in 1635: "It is agreed that hereafter uoe dwel- 
ling howse shalbe builte above halfe a myle from the 
meeting-howse in any new plantacion, without leaue 
from the Court." The next year this law was extended 
to all the towns in the colony. 

After serving in the old French war Rufus Putnam 
retired to his farm in New Brain tree, in his native state, 
Massachusetts. After he had honorably aided his coun- 
try through the perils of the Revolution, and had heard 
the suggestions of Washington, that the headlands of 
the Ohio must be guarded against the English, the Span- 
ish, and the French, he proposed a colony for that re- 
mote region. Putnam's plan reserved six hundred and 
forty acres in each township for school and church in- 
terests. This Ohio Company early voted " that the Di- 
rectors be requested to pay as early attention as possible 
to the education of youth, and the promotion of public 
worship among the first settlers." In his three months' 
ti-ip out, the ox-cart and sled of Putnam carried that 
resolution, and other eastern notions, over the Allegha- 
nies, and founded Marietta in 1788. The forces that have 
done so much to develop the magnificent delta between 
the Ohio and the Mississippi were in that cart. By and 
by, in our narrative, we shall come up with that cart 
again, beyond the Missouri, and on the headlands of the 
Columbia — another driver, but the same load. It will 
lead in the grand army of occupation, and the steel-trap 
brigades will retire. 

The visit of the four Nez Perces to St. Louis was a 



"A QUART OF SEED WHEAT." 117 

sharp criticism on the methods of the Romanists in 
planting Christianity in North America, and on the 
Hudson Bay Company in restraining civilization. Their 
failure to obtain " the Book " touched the heart of the 
land. The American Board of Commissioners for For- 
eign Missions, and the Methodist Board of Missions, at 
once took measures to send forward explorers and pre- 
pare the way for Christian missions in Oregon. The 
latter sent forward the Revs. Jason and Daniel Lee, 
and others. The Revs. Samuel Parker, and Marcus 
Whitman, M. D., under the appointment of the Amer- 
ican Board, were to have gone at the same time, but be- 
ing too late for the convoy of the American Fur Com- 
pany, they went the next year. This was not only the 
introduction of Protestant missions into Oregon, but of 
civilization among the natives. Morning in the north- 
west dates from that time. The policy of utilizing the 
northern half of this continent for fur and peltry, after 
prevailing with marvelous exclusiveness, energy and se- 
verity for a century and a half, was finally broken. 

In the seventeenth century two parallel columns of 
the English race began to move across the continent 
from east to west ; one to perpetuate wilderness and prop- 
agate fur ; the other to conquer the wilderness by civ- 
ilization, and displace wild animals by human families. 
At our present time in this current record of events the 
invading force on the one side is about two thousand, and 
on the other twelve millions. The one was a close cor- 
poration, strong in the bands of a feudal monopoly ; the 
other was one of those tidal waves of population, that, 
from time to time in the ages, have swept into a new 
country and made a nation. The one held territory — 
Rupert's Land — one half as large as all Europe, under 



118 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

warranty deed by Great Britain and in as absolute a fee 
simple as any one holds land ia London or Boston ; or, 
as Martin states it in bis " Hudson Bay Territories," '• as 
trul}'' a rightful property, as is the land or houses of an 
Englishman's private estate." The charter of that Com- 
pany had the same power, and made the same convey- 
ance as the Massachusetts, or Connecticut, or Virginia 
charter. Moreover, the Company held on lease from 
the crown as much more territory between Rupert's 
Land and the Arctic and Pacific, for exclusive trade, oc- 
cupation, and government. 

The other advancing force, invading the wilderness, 
held a similar extent of territory and by similar charters, 
originally ; and afterward in severalty in individual farms 
and town lots. The latter owners finally became the 
United States. As these two parallel columns approached 
Oregon, the question of prior and absolute right to 
go in and possess was inevitably raised. This question 
or issue was the right of the human race to occupation 
and ownership in a vacant country as against three thou- 
sand trappers and traders, for the increase of stock divi- 
dends. 

Like the emigrant companies of earlier times that 
entered the " Holland Purchase," and " the Ohio," and 
the " Dark and Bloody Ground," those bands for Ore- 
gon went in with the purpose of carrying civilization 
and Christianity westward jointly. When the Rev. Mr. 
Spalding left Liberty, on the Missouri, for his long 
prairie and mountain trail, he took, with " the Book," 
" a quart of seed wheat." Our type of Christianity 
means farms and flour-mills, and factories and bridges, 
as well as school-houses and churches, and catechisms. 
We do not forget what hard, bloody, animal pagans our 



'*A QUART OF SEED WHEAT:* 119 

Celtic and Anglo-Saxon ancestors were, when Chris- 
tianity planted " a quart of seed wheat " in the British 
Islands, and Alfred gave them letters, and Bede por- 
tions of the Bible. Then began the English-speaking 
Christianity of to-day. 

This compound of settlements and missions was a 
novelty in the realm of the Hudson Bay Company, as it 
was a surprise, and annoyance, and anxiety. Prior to 
this date, 1836, they had introduced some Christian min- 
istrations, but only to a very limited extent. After 
American settlers and missionaries went in, the Com- 
pany saw the need of doing something in the same line 
to hold the country. Years before, traders from the 
States had urged their way westward to the Salt Lake 
Basin, and Wyeth had founded Fort Hall on Snake or 
Lewis' River, and, indeed, so much trade had arisen in 
the mountains, that the American Rendezvous had be- 
come an annual trading-fair, on Green River, for parties 
both sides of the mountains. Small emigrant compa- 
nies were making their way through, some to Northern 
California, and some to Oregon. It has always been the 
happy fortune of the United States to have a border 
population that was constantly uneasy to reach a farther 
front, wilder land, and harder life. 

From the days of the Four Flat-Heads in St. Louis 
this class of population had been going west in small 
bodies from the Missouri, and through the mountains, 
prophetic of the future of Oregon, as first birds and 
flowers herald the spring. Many of their little com- 
panies had been turned back or scattered in the moun- 
tains or diverted to California by the men of the Hudson 
Bay Company, who presented all imaginable dangers, 
and discouragements, and impossibilities, to prevent 



120 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

them from opening to the States the knowledge of any 
pass or trail to Oregon. 

Several of these companies had been thus turned back 
before Messrs. Whitman and Spalding appeared at Fort 
Hall with their wives, en route for Oregon. Seven emi- 
grant trains that had reached that country were shrewdly 
enforced to leave it. Eleven fur companies had sought 
the trade of that country, but only the Hudson Bay 
Company survived. It had kept back and crowded out 
all others. Now the Methodist missionaries of the pre- 
ceding year were followed by this company ; and that 
" quart of seed wheat," suggestive of a plough, and 
wife, and family, prophesied a Christian civilization for 
Oregon, 



CHAPTER XV. 

A BRIDAL TOUR OP THIRTY-FIVE HUNDRED MILES. 

The exploring delegates of the American Board of 
Missions had designed to go over the mountains with 
the Lees in 1834, but they were detained till the next 
year. With the usual experience of dangers and rough 
incidents, common to the Indian country, these two men, 
Messrs. Whitman and Parker, arrived at the American 
Rendezvous on Green River, in the summer of 1835. 
Here they met the mountain men, and obtained inte- 
rior views of the opening fields of the great and almost 
unknown northwest. 

This meeting was of great importance to them, as 
they could here obtain much information from old 
traders and trappers concerning frontier and wild life. 
Here, too, they would have a broad introduction to the 
Indians, and could begin to study their proposed fields 
and people. Among these, singularly and happily, they 
met the Nez Perce Flat - Heads, whose Macedonian 
agents we have already met on the streets of St. Louis. 

The two delegates, like the spies of Israel sent up 
from Kadesh, must have been burdened with the anxie- 
ties of their business. But being shrewd men, and 
practical, they soon comprehended the situation, and 
laid their plans. The Rev. Mr. Parker johied himself 
to the Nez Perces, and under their leading and protec- 
tion, threaded his way to Walla Walla and Vancouver. 



122 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

Studying his field for an instructive report to the Board 
which sent him, and enlarging his commission somewhat 
in the line of his tastes iuto scientific explorations, he 
remained in the valley of the Columbia till June, 1836, 
and then returned to the States by way of the Sandwich 
Islands. 

The practical eye and straight sense of Dr. Whitman 
grasped at once his great life-work, and he returned that 
autumn to the States to report the field, procure his 
outfit, and go back to his labors. And as the delegates 
of Israel carried back the clusters of Eshcol, as evi- 
dences of the worth of the land they had explored, so 
Dr. Whitman took back with him two Nez Perce boys, 
as specimens of the people whom he would win to a 
Christian civilization. 

Now there opens a chapter in American history, that 
for heroes and heroines, boldness of enterprise, plots, 
moral and physical daring, hardly has its equal in the 
bricrhtest visions of fiction. The American Board saw 
their way clear to open a Christian mission in Oregon, 
but the highest prudence could not entrust this opening 
to less than two men, and they must take their wives 
with them. 

At no point in this long international struggle for 
Oregon do the two policies, the English and the Ameri- 
ican, so radically diverge as at this point, where the 
successful policy takes on the honorable family type. 
It was traditional in the early policies of fur-trading 
England, and of France, and Spain, ordinarily in colo- 
nizing and civilizing the New World, to esteem lightly 
the institution of the family, and make but poor pro- 
visions for it. 

Three persons, and no less, can carry agriculture, man- 



A LONG BRIDAL TOUR. 123 

ufuctures, trade, aud civil government into a v^ilderness, 
and make it over into neighborhoods of good society ; and 
those three are the husband, the wife, and the child. Only 
the honorable and honored marriage tie can hold that 
society from turning back into savage wilderness. With- 
out the sacred alliance implied in those two noblest and 
strongest words in language, husband and wife, there is 
no civilization to man. These two wives whom we are 
about to take over the prairies and the mountains were 
not the first to enter Oregon, but they heralded the 
great coming immigration of family life, and it was a 
novelty on the northwest coast. 

At just this point Spaniard, Frenchman, and Hudson 
Bay man made a vast mistake in taking possession in 
North America, and showed a vast weakness in holding 
and developing the possessions first taken. Their very 
idea of a colony had in it a radical and fatal defect. In 
the early peopling of Canada the colonists were traders, 
soldiers, priests, and nuns ; and husbands and wives were 
the rare exception. To remedy this, single females were 
sent out afterward. Girls of the poorer classes were 
taken from the hospitals of Paris and Lyons. In 1 QQ5, 
one hundred were thus sent and married at once. Two 
years later one hundred and nine, mostly of a higher 
grade, were sent on request of officials in Canada, and a 
royal bonus was bestowed on officers who married them. 
La Motte received fifteen hundred livres for marrying 
in that country. The home government found it difii- 
cult to send over enough peasant girls, and many from 
the cities were of indifferent virtue. Yet, after full 
ships of them had arrived, not one would be without a 
husband at the end of two weeks. Some of the more 
notorious were reshipped to France. On arrival at Que- 



124 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

bee and Montreal they were lodged in large houses, un- 
der matronly care, where the suitors visited and made 
their selections, much as servant girls are now secured. 

Bounties were paid on early marriages, as for the young 
man under twenty and the girl under sixteen, twenty 
livres each, and sometimes the king's gift added a house 
and provisions for eight months. The father was pun- 
ished who did not marry his sons and daughters at those 
early years, and a bachelor had little mercy shown him, 
for be was forbidden to hunt, fish, or trade with the In- 
dians, or partake of Indian life. When the annual im- 
portation of girls was nearly due, government orders 
were issued that single men must be married within 
a fortnight of their arrival. " Mother Mary " informs 
us that " no sooner have the vessels arrived than the 
young men go to get wives, and, by reason of the great 
number, they are married off by thirties at a time." 

The results were inevitable, from such an enforced 
condition of society. The family did not become the 
corner-stone of a prosperous civil state, and morals de- 
generated. In the absence of the real home, social 
vices seized the communities. Says one author : " At 
Three Rivers there are twenty-five houses, and liquor 
may be had at eighteen or twenty of them." One Jean 
Bourdon, a licensed innkeeper, " is required to establish 
himself on the great square of Quebec, close to the 
church, so that the parishioners may conveniently warm 
and refresh themselves between the services." ^ 

A similar policy, with a similar and natural misfortune 
following, was adopted in colonizing Louisiana. In 
1720, about six hundred immigrants arrived at Mobile, 
but many of the females were from the Hospital Gene- 

I The Old Regime in Canada, Parkman, ch. 13. See, also, chs. 
20, 21. 



A LONG BRIDAL TOUR. 125 

ral of Paris. This practice continued for years to the 
great detriment of the province. After a foolish exper- 
iment the king forbade the exportation of convicts as 
colonists, but continued to send girls of very mixed 
qualities. At the same time many poor and virtuous wo- 
men were sent to Louisiana, where they founded some 
of the best families of the state. But this method of 
founding the family, under government order, without 
regard to affinities and choices, left that magnificent 
province quite in a state of nature from the days of De 
Soto to its annexation to the United States. Spanish 
and French were alike in this theory and practice of 
colonization, and hence failed to hold and develop their 
possessions in North America. 

Even the English made similar mistakes and failures. 
When Florida belonged to Great Britain Lord Rolle, in 
1764, attempted a colony on the St. John's River, " to 
which he transported nearly three hundred miserable 
females, who were picked up in the purlieus of London." 
Of course his Charlotia was a failure. In the Virginia 
colony, quite early, a wife was to be had at the cost of 
importation, varying from one hundred and twenty to 
two hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco. Yet such were 
maids of virtuous education and habit. 

But this apparent yet not real wandering which we 
have indulged must be turned again to our Oregon. As 
I have shown all along, the Hudson Bay Company in- 
troduced into their possessions, as officers and servants, 
almost uniformly single men, and young men, too. It 
is simple history, therefore, and should be no matter of 
surprise, when Martin, the friendly historian of the Com- 
pany, says : " A large proportion of the Company's ser- 
vants, and, with very few exceptions, the officers, are unit- 



126 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

edto native women." And this other statement he adds 
naturally, and it should come without surprise. At Van- 
couver, and he writes this as late as 1849, " the residents 
mess at several tables ; one for the chief factor and his 
clerks ; one for their wives, it being against the regula- 
tions of the Company for their officers and their wives to 
take their meals together." With squaw wives and 
half-breed children it might not be agreeable, but what 
is to be said of the civilization, nearly two centuries old, 
which interdicts the family table from Hudson Bay to 
the Pacific Ocean ? The two brides whom we are fol- 
lowing to the Columbia are the type of another social 
order and will introduce another state of society. 

Now and then one ordered a wife from his native land, 
as already stated, and the books of the Hudson Bay 
Company show that the order was honored, by the re- 
ceipt entered : " Received, one wife in good condition." 
But this was an imported luxury which few could enjoy. 
As a general result the increase of population was half- 
breed ; European civilization went down towards the In- 
dian type of life in North America, meeting half way, 
more or less, in the wigwam and shanty ; the elevating, 
refining, ennobling influence of woman, which makes the 
larger part of the true home, was wanting, and society, 
in the Hudson Bay country, became a dubious hyphen 
between the savage and the civilized. The arrival of 
those missionary families, as the forerunners of the or- 
dinary immigration from the States, foretold a new era 
on the north-west coast. They turned a tide that had 
had an Arctic course for almost two centuries. 

"Yon stream, whose courses run, 
Turned by a pebble's edge, 
Is Athabasca, rolling toward the sun, 
Through the cleft mountain-ledge. 



A LONG BRIDAL TOUR. 127 

The slender rill had strayed, 

But for the slanting stone, 
To evening's ocean, with the tangled braid 

Of foam-flecked Oregon." 

The betrothed of Dr. Whitman consented to the ar- 
duous mission, while more than a score of devoted men 
declined the howling wilderness and savage inhabitants. 
They preferred more inviting mission fields and easier 
work beyond the sea. It was a long search to find a 
man who was willing 

" To lose himself in the continuous woods 
Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound 
Save his own dashings." 

Those prairie trails and mountain passes were strewn 
with the wrecks of emigrant trains and the bones of rival 
traders and trappers. Many Indians there had been so 
outraged by the whites that a white face was the signal 
for revenge. The wanton robbery or murder of unof- 
fending natives had already cost the life of many inno- 
cent white men, and unavenged wrongs were still wait- 
ing for their chance for recompense. 

Dr. Whitman deferred his marriage, and continued 
the search into the early spring of 1836, for an associate 
in his Oregon work. At length he struck the track of 
his man, and found himself giving chase to a hybrid 
vehicle, between wagon and sleigh — no uncommon 
carriage in the backwoods, and mechanical cousin to 
Wyeth's amphibium — which was cutting through the 
crispy and crusty snows of western New York. It car- 
ried the Rev. H. H. Spalding and his fresh bride, on 
their way as missionaries to the Osage Indians, then 
holding a reservation in that section. 

The American Board had put Dr. Whitman in pursuit 
of this couple. He overhauled them there on the win- 



128 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

ter highway, and sent forward a hailing call that they 
were wanted for Oregon. Question and answer between 
the two carriages soon summed up the case : The 
journey might require the summers of two years ; they 
could have the convoy of the American Fur Company 
to the " divide ; " the Nez Perces, their future parish- 
ioners, would meet them as escort for the remainder of 
the journey ; the food would be buffalo, venison, and 
other game meats ; the conveyance would be the saddle 
alternating with the feet ; the rivers they would swim 
on horseback ; and their housing would be tents, blan- 
kets, and stars. 

Mr. Spalding said to his wife, recently from a bed of 
lingering sickness, " It is not your duty to go ; your 
health forbids, but it shall be left to you after we have 
prayed together." Thus talking back and forth between 
the sleighs, that were inverted wagons, and with each 
other, they entered the little backwoods village of How- 
ard and drew rein before the small tavern. They took 
counsel together from on high, when the young bride 
was left alone for her conclusion. Ten minutes and a 
cheerful face brought the answer : " I have made up my 
mind for Oregon." 

At once her husband pleaded her weak state — the 
fatigues and privations of so long a journey — three thou- 
sand miles at least — and two thousand of it in saddle 
and canoe and on foot — the Indians frantic for captives 
and revenge — distance from the old home and a white 
man's neighborhood — and all that and all that. The 
answer was ready ; and probably man or woman never 
came nearer, in giving it, to the spirit of its author : 
*' What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart ? For 
I am ready not to be bound only but also to die on the 
Rocky Mountains for the name of the^ Lord Jesus." 



A LONG BRIDAL TOUR. 129 

When detailing these incidents thirty-four years af- 
terward Mr. Spalding said, with charming simplicity : 
" Then I had to come to it. I did not know anything." 
We admire the heroism rather than the reasoning of the 
feeble woman ; but ardor not unfrequently does more 
than logic in producing noble results. 

It was all settled then at the little village of Howard. 
Dr. Whitman sent a messenger to his betrothed to be 
ready for a hasty wedding and a long bridal tour. He 
started off for his two Nez Perce boys. The wedding 
came soon ; there were " no cards," and the bride would 
" receive " on the Columbia. 

What a bridal tour for the two young wives ! Travel 
on the frontier, or even out west, was not what it is to- 
day. Only six years before the Baltimore and Ohio 
railroad — the first for passengers in North America — 
had had an august opening of fifteen miles on strap-rail 
and with horse power. It even tried to run its cars by 
sail ! Not twelve months before the Boston and Lowell, 
Boston and Worcester, and Boston and Providence rail- 
roads had opened. Only three years before the first 
steamer had entered Chicago, and it must be fifteen yet 
before the first locomotive can lead in a passenger train. 

How young and small Cincinnati was when they 
passed it ! The first white born citizen of that city, 
William Moody, was there to welcome them, only forty- 
six years of age. At Pittsburg Catlin warned the gen- 
tlemen against the presumption of attempting to take 
women over the plains, and through the mountains, and 
the tragic fate of one company was detailed, where all 
the men were murdered by the Indians that the one 
woman might be carried into a horrid and unreported 
captivity. Advice to turn back, warnings, prayers, and 
9 



130 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

benedictions followed them from city to city, till they 
rounded to at the semi- American town of St. Louis, and, 
mid a jargon of languages, and mixture of costumes, 
and miscellany of merchandize on the levee, they were 
taken by the hand and welcomed to hospitable homes. 
The missionary party now consisted of five, Messrs. 
Spalding and Whitman, with their wives, and W. H. 
Gray, agent for the proposed mission. 

The American Fur Company was fitting out its annual 
expedition up the Missouri, and to the mountains, but 
to admit women as parties in the expedition was a ques- 
tionable novelty. However, the Doctor on his return 
trip the preceding year with this Company had so acted 
the good Samaritan when the cholera struck them, that 
they could not now refuse. They therefore promised 
to take the missionary party under convoy when they 
should leave Council Bluffs. 

Four years before the two disheartened Nez Perces 
had left those same streets with heavy hearts for their 
dark land and benighted people, but now light and hope 
followed them up the river. The party pressed on in 
advance of the fur men, but by vexatious delays in the 
purchase and driving of stock a part of the way, and by 
the failure of the boat to take on board the Doctor and 
ladies at Liberty Landing, they found themselves six days 
behind at Council Bluffs. The convoy had so much 
the start out on the plains. 

It was a hard chase to gain all this, and the serio- 
comic incidents of such a trip, in an inexperienced com- 
pany, seemed inclined to concentrate on the clergyman. 
Inanimate nature, circumstances, " things," sometimes 
appear to assume a personality and take a will to make 
some selected one the object or butt of their rude and 



A LONG BRIDAL TOUR. 131 

comic jests and practical jokes. Mr. Spalding was 
kicked by a mule, shaken by the ague, stripped by a tor- 
nado, not only of his tent but his blankets, and crowded off 
the ferryboat by an awkward, uncivilized frontier cow, to 
which he made a caudal attachment as a life preserver. 
While he had these freaks of nature played off on him, 
he entertained some doubts of overtaking the convoy, 
and had questions about a return. Between these serial 
mishaps and discouragements his feeble wife would 
bring him to himself by the remark : " I have started 
for the Rocky Mountains and I expect to go there." 

Late in May, 1836, and at two o'clock in the morning, 
they came to the Loup Fork of the Platte, and were 
cheered to hear their signal gun answered from the op- 
posite bank. They had almost won the chase. The 
convoy started off early, but left a man to show them 
over the river, and Mr. Spalding, lively with the mem- 
ory of the incidents, says : " Late that night we mission- 
aries filed into their camp, and took the place reserved 
for us, two messes west of the Captain's tent, and so we 
won by two lengths." 

The caravan was now large, consisting of about two 
hundred persons, and six hundred animals. They 
marched and encamped with military carefuhiess. At 
night the stock were placed in the centre of the encamp- 
ment ; enclosing them were the tents and wagons ; and en- 
circling all a close cordon of sentinels. All this was 
necessary because of the Indians, more or less hostile, 
always thieving, and seldom far from the line of march. 

The fur men were exceedingly kind to the ladies. A 
sense of honor and a pride that they were thus entrusted 
with them, and withal the homage that manhood always 
pays to the true woman, led them to show favors and 



132 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

courtesies. The choice pieces of the game went to them, 
and their comfort and ease were a kind of pilot to the 
Company. No man, unless he be a sailor, carries a 
warmer heart and stronger arm for those who need him, 
and honorably trust him, than these rough mountain 
men. 

Four of the party had it as their business to bring 
into camp each night four mule -loads of wild meat. 
Yet sometimes there was a failure, as there was of 
water, or sunshine. Of course the journey had its per- 
petual variations. There was the scenery of prairie, 
timber, and stream, the buffalo, antelope, and coyote, 
and a new style of Indian with a new trick at stealing. 
More ravines to be filled, a more ugly ford, and more 
upsets and broken wagons varied the monotony some 
days. Sometimes the tempest of wind and rain and 
thunder would come before night, which was a pleasing 
variation. Yet as the days wore by, measuring the dis- 
tance between them and loved ones, these relieving 
changes dropped into the groove of sameness. Mental 
as well as physical weariness came over them, and they 
endured the passive state of being acted upon rather 
than acting — a painful doom to an energetic nature. 

June sixth they were at Laramie, but how their 
nomad Arab-wandering contrasts with the activity and 
industries in that Platte valley to-day ! On the fourth 
of July they entered the famous South Pass, where the 
Rocky and Wind-river Mountains almost come together, 
yet leave an opening for human tides to flow to and fro. 
Here, on a high plateau, the head springs of the North 
Platte, the Yellowstone, and the Colorado show their 
silver threads. This is the grand " divide " of the waters 
of the Continent, and here the Atlantic and Pacific 



A LONG BRIDAL TOUR, 133 

keep a perpetual agency and watch that each may take 
its own waters in sight of the other. Sometimes it is a 
by-play of the jaded travelers, while resting here for a 
day or two, to rob each ocean by carrying a cup of the 
young river half a mile and pouring it into the fountain 
stream of the other. 

It is a little amusing to trace through this pass the 
routes of distinguished explorers, as " Fremont, 1842," 
" Fremont, 1843," " Stanbury, 1849." It may give 
information and also divide honors with the Pathfinder 
to add : "Mesdames Whitman and Spalding, 1836." A 
United States corps of engineers discovering a pass in 
the Rocky Mountains six years after two women had 
gone through ! 

In the morning of that day Mrs. Spalding was quite 
ill, fainted, and thought she was near the end of her life 
journey. They lifted her tenderly from the saddle, and 
gave her what repose and comfort they could on robes 
and blankets. The long tour, with its always varying 
but never ceasing fatigues, had steadily mcreased the 
feebleness with which she left her New York home, and 
her end seemed nigh. Rallying her remaining strength, 
yet showing no loss of her womanly fortitude and hero- 
ism, she said : " Do not put me on that horse again. 
Leave me here, and save yourselves for the great work. 
Tell mother I am glad I came." 

That column of caravan life marched on, as it does 
everywhere in this world, while the feeble fall out of 
rank and a few linger long enough to care for the dying. 
When, however, the company made their usual camp at 
evening Mrs. Spalding was brought in much revived. 
Was it because they gave her to drink of the brook 
trickling by, whose waters were to run through her great 
parish to the Pacific ? 



134 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

When they were under way again, and had advanced 
far enough to be on the Pacific slope of the country, 
twenty -five hundred miles from home, the missionary 
party stopped and dismounted. Then, spreading their 
blankets and lifting the American flag, they all kneeled 
around the Book, and, with prayer and praise, took 
possession of the western side of the continent for Christ 
and the Church. 

There are few scenes in American records that sur- 
pass this one for historic grandeur. For a century and 
a half those western sections of the New World had 
been overrun by Europeans who left but faint traces of 
Christianity and civilization. The abused, plundered, 
and neglected natives had brought their request for 
light and the Book three thousand miles to the nearest 
Christian city, only to be disappointed. This little band 
proposed to give the land to a Christian civilization 
from sea to sea. They have now come the weary way 
to the western half of it. Historic figures five of them, 
they kneel to give half a continent to the better times 
of " peace on earth, and good will toward men.'* The 
two Nez Perce boys stand by, with eyes«on the five, and 
the flag, and the Book. That act went far toward the 
settlement of the Oregon question, and in giving to the 
United States six thousand miles of Pacific coast. 

We have other grand historic scenes on canvas. Bal- 
boa at Panama, taking possession of the Pacific and all 
its lands for the Crown of Spain ; the landing of the 
Pilgrims ; Washington assuming command of the Amer- 
ican army ; Washington surrendering that power after 
the Republic was established ; the First Prayer in Con- 
gress, and many other noble memorials. But in com- 
pass of background and foreground ; the two halves of 



A LONG BE [DAL TOUR. 135 

the continent ; the parting rivers for the two oceans ; 
the moral exigency suggested by the two Indian figures ; 
the rounding out of the Republic on the sunset side, as 
it came in the consequences ; the kneeling men and 
women around the Book, with the American flag float- 
ing over them, — the scene is worthy of any panel in 
the Rotunda at Washington. 

How well the picture harmonizes with that passage 
in Washington's first inaugural address : " No people 
can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible 
hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the 
people of the United States. Every step by which they 
have advanced to the character of an independent nation 
seems to have been distinguished by some token of 
Providential agency." 

A few more stages of weary travel, and our little 
company, who are to do so much in adjusting the Ore- 
gon difficulties and enlarging the American Union, ar- 
rived at the great mountain rendezvous of trappers and 
traders, and so to the end of protection under con- 
voy. They tarried here ten days to recruit and prepare 
for their separate march to the Columbia. Let us look 
in on the grand encampment nestled among magnificent 
mountains, and sketch a few scenes that disappeared 
with the past generation, and that in this rush of fron- 
tier life are fast receding into antiquarian background. 
Long since such gatherings ceased to be realities. 

This annual fair of mountain men and Indians was 
held midway between South Pass and Fort Hall. The 
encampment was on the banks of Green River, a head 
stream of the Colorado, whose cold waters begin their 
long journey of twelve hundred miles by trickling down 
the snowy canons of Fremont's Peak, and there rush 



136 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

by our motley multitude to frolic madly in the Black 
Canon, five hundred miles from its mouth in the Gulf of 
California. Probably this is the wildest scene in the 
world. For twenty-five miles the river plunges down a 
rocky defile between precipice banks, from a thousand 
to fifteen hundred feet high, leaving the water unap- 
proachable and only to be looked down upon from 
their giddy heights. The traders gathered here, Amer- 
ican and English, bringing all the comforts and finery 
that the red man so covets, while Indian tribes, by their 
representatives, come in from the prairies this side the 
mountains, and over the rocky ranges, beyond the Great 
Basin, laden with the fur spoils of a year. It was their 
annual holiday, too, in which to break the dull sameness 
of their life. 

The first dinner of our friends there is worthy of a 
record. July 20, 1836, the table is spread. It is a 
shaky oilcloth on the grass ; the plates, tin when at 
Council Bluffs, now battered flakes of sheet iron ; cups 
the same, but not so flat ; knives of the butcher species ; 
forks, sticks of local option and cut ; venison, and buf- 
falo, and mountain sheep, broiled or roasted ; seasoning, 
some salt, some ashes, and some sand. For second 
course a scant service of mountain-made bread, some 
tea and a very little sugar. Two Indian chiefs are at 
the board, that is, the oilcloth, and an uncounted num- 
ber of Indian waiters, — for remnants. The grounds 
are covered by fifteen hundred people, of mixed blood, 
language and costume ; about one hundred of these are 
American traders and trappers ; fifty are French of the 
Canadian type, and twenty citizens, including the mis- 
sion party. The rest are Indians. 

At the International Indian Fair at Mus-ko-gee, in 



A LONG BRIDAL TOUR. 137 

1880, I found more Indians, about two thousand, but 
much less Indian life, with about five hundred bronzed 
whites intermixed. Civil and savage life meet here to 
exchange goods. Similar gatherings are still observed 
as great holidays. 

The goods of the American Fur Company are in log- 
pens, covered with canvas, poles, or brush, on a turf floor. 
The equipage of the campaign is dumped near the store- 
cabin, being pack-saddles and the miscellaneous whatnots 
of wilderness life ; encircling these are the white camps, 
and outside of all the posted guards. Between the trad- 
in2"-hut and the river mules and horses are made safe 
against stampedes and petty thefts by a double row of 
tents. Adjoining on the west are the fires and screens 
of the trappers and hunters ; and for three miles farther 
a miscellany of wigwams are spread along, continuous in 
tribal sections, hugging Horse Creek above the junction 
with Green River. 

The red men, and the mountain men too, were not 
unmindful of courtesy to their white lady visitors, and 
so prepared an entertainment. It was an Indian tour- 
nament, quite enjoyable after it had been frightful. Six 
hundred Indians, mounted, plumed, painted, and decked 
with all the insignia of war, and with all the whooping 
and yelling and noise-making that they only know how 
to produce, with horses frantic and plunging, came rush- 
ing through the rendezvous. One needs a little Indian 
blood in order to be nerveless on such an occasion^ 
even when he knows what is coming. As the parade 
was partly to entertain and partly to gain a view of the 
first two white women who had dared to enter the 
mountains, the line of rushing was laid by their tents. 
They, therefore, had all the benefit of position at the 
very front. 



138 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

But there were others to gaze on those women. Hardy 
Rocky Mountain trappers, who had not seen white 
women for twenty-five years, were carried back by the 
sight to the days of a mother and sister and school- 
mates, and a cottage home of childhood ; and those rough 
yet strong-hearted men wept like children. Their man- 
hood came back to them when they saw a gown ; and 
all their civilization concentrated in the awkward doffing 
of a greasy cap, when Mrs. Whitman or Mrs. Spalding 
walked by. Years afterward one of these men said : 
" From that day when I took again the hand of a civil- 
ized woman I was a better man." It would be difiicult 
to find a tribute to woman more hearty and noble than 
that. The grand element that the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany had so carefully kept back, while they were pre- 
serving wilderness and propagating beaver, was on the 
way to add the northwest to Christendom. 

The joy of the missionaries was much increased by 
meeting here a large delegation of the Nez Perces. 
When Dr. Whitman turned back from this place to the 
States in the preceding autumn, it was exceedingly 
gratifying to this tribe to be invited to meet the Doctor 
and his company here at this time. They were there 
on the arrival, and the pleasure of the meeting was 
mutual. The gratitude and gladness of the poor natives 
was quite demonstrative, and specially towards the wo- 
men. They almost monopolized the ladies as the sub- 
jects of their peculiar care. Ordinary food, and such 
delicacies as the mountains afforded, personal services, 
their rude but tender and hearty kindnesses — all this 
was without limit. 

The ten days soon ran by, letters were written for 
the States, goods reduced and repacked, first lessons in 



A LONG BRIDAL TOUR. ' 139 

Indian companionship well conned, a Hudson Bay party 
engaged as an escort, and finally the pioneer brigade 
of civilization moved on westward. They reached the 
English Fort Hall, run the gauntlet of its crafty impedi- 
ments — of which more by ^nd by — reduced luggage 
again and pressed on. In a few days they were at a log 
pole, and brush enclosure, called Fort Boise. Here the 
Doctor was compelled by Hudson Bay Company advice, 
not highway difficulties, to leave his wagon. 

By and by, after the incidents of ferries, and fords, 
mountain sides and cailons, overplus and half rations, 
the party descended the Blue Mountains, and looked 
into the valley of the long-sought Columbia. Mount 
Hood, the tallest sentinel of the Cascade range, stood 
high up, one hundred and fifty miles away, to give them 
welcome. 

On the second of September, 1836, and four months 
from the Missouri, and thirty-five hundred miles of 
weary travel from their childhood home and marriage 
group, the open, cordial gates of Fort Walla Walla re- 
ceived them. The bridal tour was ended, and the ac- 
quisition of Oregon begiin. 



CHAPTER XVL 

whitman's " OLD WAGON." 

The Oregon question finally turned on wheels. Even 
Webster and Ashburton, the high contracting parties to 
settle the international boundarj^ on the north from 
ocean to ocean, could carry the line of division no far- 
ther west than the Rocky Mountains. Then diplomacy, 
civil engineering, and the two nations — all concerned 
— had to wait for the wagons. The taking of one 
through, overland, to the Columbia, by Dr. Whitman, 
was the most important act in all preliminaries in the 
settlement of the Oregon controversy. 

At first only two parties took a proper view of a wagon 
for Oregon — Marcus Whitman and the Hudson Bay 
Company. In 1836, when the wagon was at F*ort Hall 
and Fort Boise with its two women occupants, it sug- 
gested to the Company the family and a civilized home 
and permanent settlement in Oregon, and a highway 
from the Missouri to that settlement which others could 
follow. The Company therefore determined to turn the 
wagon back, or divert it to California, or stop it abso- 
lutely. Dr. Whitman took the sanie view of the wagon, 
and therefore concluded to take it through to Oregon. 
But we must go back a little in the narrative. 

When the fur-traders and the mission party arrived 
at Fort Laramie, as we have seen, it was assumed, as a 
matter of course, that all wagons and carts would, as 



WHITMAN'S ''OLD WAGON:' 141 

usual, be abandoned, as it was thought impracticable 
to proceed farther with them. The Doctor had been 
brought up where there is much natural antagonism be- 
tween wheels and mountains, and he had been educated 
to overcome it. He was not, therefore, disposed to give 
up to the Rocky Mountains. He objected to the aban- 
donment of the wagons. 

He had purchased two at Liberty, on the Missouri, 
and now it seemed very desirable, on account of the 
ladies, to take along at least one of them. There was 
much discussion over it between the missionaries and the 
traders, and finally the latter consented to make the 
experiment, and at the same time added one of their 
carts to the mission wagon. Dr. Whitman was put in 
charge of the carriages, and the first night out from 
Fort Laramie he came into camp late, warm, puffing, 
and cheery too, for he had had only one upset with the 
wagon and two with the cart. So affairs progressed, 
with various accidents and incidents to wagon and cart, 
now a capsize and now a repair, now a man and now a 
mule objecting and with equal Roman firmness, till they 
arrived at the rendezvous or great fair grounds. 

When they put out from the rendezvous, all parties 
and persons, except the Flat-Heads, advised them 
to leave the wagon. However, after camp was mado 
the Doctor came in, and to the general surprise, with 
his four-wheeled companion. " He was totally alone," 
says Gray, the historian, one of his company, " in his 
determination to get his old wagon through to the waters 
of the Columbia, and to the i_iission station that might be 
established, no one knew where." 

There is no other sound like that made by a stout- 
loaded wagon on a rough road ; and now after six thou' 



142 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

sand years or so of stillness in those wild regions, those 
sounds woke the echoes of the mountains. Perhaps out 
of respect to the pre-historic Americans we ought to 
double that six thousand. We can hear that Whitman 
wagon now, in our mental ear, and it will help the hear- 
ing if one will pronounce aloud the name that the In- 
dians gave to the " old wagon." They put into jerky 
syllables the sounds it made as it rose and fell and stopped 
in the soft grass and among the rocks, and called it i 
chick-chick-shani-le-kai-Jcash. 

On the caravan moved, traders and preacher, and wo- 
men, and Indian, mules, pack-saddles, and ponies ; the 
wagon far in the rear, now saying, on the grass land, 
chick-chick, and now among the rocks, kai-kash. Mr. 
Gray says, in his " History of Oregon " : " It is due to 
Dr. Whitman to say, notwithstanding this was the most 
difficult route we had to travel, yet he persevered with 
his old wagon without any particular assistance. From 
Soda Springs to Fort Hall his labor was immense, yet 
he overcame every difficulty, and brought it safe through. 
I have thrice since traveled the same route, and I con- 
fess I cannot see how he did it." 

Arrived at Fort Hall, about one hundred miles north 
of Salt Lake, all baggage and luggage were reduced as 
much as possible and repacked. Here all parties, mis- 
sion and Hudson Bay and the Post men too, combined 
to say that the wagon could be hauled no farther. The 
terrible cafions, and bottomless creeks in the Snake 
Plains, made it impossible. But the iron Doctor was 
immovable. Then they said that he must at least take 
it apart and pack it, if it went on. Finally, the indom- 
itable man made a compromise, converted the wagon 
into a cart, loaded in the duplicate wheels and axletree, 
and started again on wheels for the Columbia. 



WHITMAN'S ''OLD WAGON.'' 143 

True, when they came to the Snake River, both the 
cart and its driver had to do some swimming, but they 
both came out on the west bank, and so much nearer to 
Oregon. So they entered Fort Boise, two miles below 
the old Boise City. This was so rude an inclosure that 
it would hardly pass for a cattle pen or mule corral. 
Here the cart took on a very serious look and so did 
every man when he looked at it. The expressions of 
opinion as to its farther advance became more decided, 
and some of them tersely brief, and to missionary ears 
more inelegant than to mountaineers. The escort of 
Hudson Bay men had stopped at Fort Hall, and all but 
the Doctor felt the need of moving on in a light and 
compact and very defensible order. It was again sug- 
gested to take it apart, and pack it through, if the mules 
carrying it would not slide from the precipices which 
they would have to scale and descend. Finally another 
compromise was effected. The wagon should be left at 
Fort Boise, till some one could come back and take it 
on to the established mission. This was done and judg- 
ments harmonized, and soon after " the old wagon " 
went through, the first to pass the plains and the moun- 
tain so far towards Orcijon. 

Thus the irrepressible energy of this man pioneered 
for a carriage way to Oregon in 1836. The year before 
the first house had been built in San Francisco, steam 
cars had run out from Boston toward Lowell and Worces- 
ter and Providence, and this year twelve hundred and 
seventy-three miles of rail had been laid in the country, 
and the whistle and the rattle of locomotives were full 
of the prophecy of the 104,813 miles of it that we had 
at the close of 1881. So the chick-chick-shani-le-kai-kash 
of the Doctor was not one of the minor prophets. 



144 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

This movement of the nation westward on wheels is 
an interesting study. One of the earliest items in it may 
be found in the Records of the City of Newton, Massa- 
chusetts, for the year 1687. "John Ward and Noah 
Wis wall were joined to our selectmen to treat with the 
selectmen of Cambridge to lay out a highway from our 
meeting-house to the Falls." I cannot trace a current 
tradition to any other board of highway commissioners, 
which says, that being instructed to lay out a highway 
into the wilderness, they in due time reported : " That 
they had laid out said highway to a bluff in the wilder- 
ness, on the Charles River, between its upper and lower 
Falls in Newton, and in the judgment of the commis- 
sioners that point was as far westward as any public road 
would ever be needed." This bluff was about ten miles 
" out west " from the Boston meeting-house ! How- 
ever, the " western fever " so prevailed that an exten- 
sion of the public road more than ten miles from Bos- 
ton was demanded, for in the Records of the Great and 
General Court of Massachusetts for 1683 we find this 
entry : — 

"Whereas the way to Kenecticut now vsed being 
very hazardous to travellers by reason of one deepe riuer 
that is passed fower or fine times ouer, which may be 
avoyded, as is conceived, by a better and nearer way, 
it is referred to Major Pynchon in order y® sajd way be 
lajd out and well marked. He having hired two Indians 
to guide him in the way, and contracted w*^ them for 
fiuty shillings, it is ordered that the Treasurer of the 
County pay the same in country pay towards the effect- 
ing the worke." 

One century and one year after the Newton survey, 
Rufus Putnam started, and, with ox-cart and sled, in a 



WHITMAN'S ''OLD WAGON.'' 145 

three months' journey went farther west. Now we hear 
*' the old wagon " of Marcus Whitman rattling along 
among the head streams of the Columbia. This remark- 
able and now historic vehicle, that had been the centre 
of so many doubts and hard sayings and anxieties, as a 
moving treasury coveted by Indians, and the subject of 
so many upsets and unneeded baths, and that had been 
developed inversely and degradingly into a cart, finally 
and later came out, all right, on the lower Columbia, at 
Fort Walla Walla. When the company arrived there in 
advance of " the old wagon " they had been out over 
four months from the Missouri at Liberty Landing, hav- 
ing traveled about twenty-two hundred and fifty miles. 
They had made an average of more than twenty-five 
miles a day, which was a good rate for a caravan, since 
the average of a Roman army was sixteen miles. 

When I resided in St. Louis, the old family carriage 
of General Clark, the first that ever crossed the Missis- 
sippi, was turned off at auction for five dollars. Prob- 
ably to-day its remains rest in some spot as obscure and 
covered over by drift in the stream of time as the grave 
of De Soto in the lower Mississippi. It would be a rare 
antiquity and treasure to head a procession celebrating 
the first or second centennial of its Z' Annee du Coup. 
But " the old wagon " of Dr. Whitman would now be a 
rarer treasure and relic. It carried more national des- 
tiny than the stately coach of the General. Very pleas- 
ant historical coincidences associate these two men and 
the two carriages. In 1804 the General, then Lieuten- 
ant, went over to view the newly purchased Oregon, 
and took the first look at the Pacific that an American 
citizen ever had of it from American soil. Thirty-two 
years afterward the Doctor followed with his wagon on 
10 



146 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

the trail of the General. It would be difficult to find 
two single acts in the lives of two men which have so 
marked American history. 

The work was done substantially. The wagon and 
the two brides, Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding, had 
won Oregon. The first wheels had marked the prairie, 
and brushed the sage, and grazed the rocks, and cut the 
river banks all the way from the Missouri to the Colum- 
bia. How many ten thousands have since been on that 
trail with their long lines of white canvas-topped teams ! 
The first white women had crossed the continent, and 
not only witnessed but achieved the victory. In our 
great game of two nations, Oregon is already practically 
won. In going through, Whitman's wagon had demon- 
strated that women and children and household goods 
— the family — could be carried over the plains and 
mountains to Oregon. If so, the United States wanted 
Oregon, and afterward two hundred wagons went over 
and took possession of it. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

ANXIETY AND STRATEGY OF THE HUDSON BAY 
COMPANY. 

In the second year following this first party a com- 
pany of missionaries passed Fort Hall, with wives, nine 
persons in all, exclusive of the assistants. Impediments, 
perils, and Indians do not seem to have been put before 
their fancies there at that fur-traders' Gibraltar, for they 
had no carriages. They had acted on the already well 
established impressions in the east, that carriages could 
not travel to Oregon. In 1839 a similar company went 
through in the same way, without wagons, and so far as 
appears, without warnings and intimidations. 

"In 1840 three missionary ladies from New York, 
Mrs. Smith, Clark, and Littlejohn, and their husbands, 
and the first emigrant lady, Mrs. Walker and her husband 
crossed the mountains and brought their wagons. But 
on reaching Fort Hall they were compelled to abandon 
their wagons by the representations of the Hudson Bay 
Company, who declared that wagons never had passed, 
and could not pass through the Snake country and the 
Blue Mountains to the Columbia." The Rev. Mr. 
Spalding, the companion of Dr. Whitman, tells ns this, 
and adds that Mr. and Mrs. Walker left Oregon for Cal- 
ifornia in 1841, and that she was the first American 
lady to settle in that territory. 

In 1841 several emigrant families reached Fort Hall 



148 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

with their teams, and, like the most of their predeces- 
sors, they were shaken from their purpose and abandoned 
wheels. During this period of struggle to stay the in- 
coming tide, the Company offered to sell saddles to those 
who would abandon their carriages. They also were 
willing to furnish supplies, as flour, to General Palmer, 
at twenty cents a pound, but they were quite unwilling 
to receive, in payment, anything but money and cattle. 
Four cows or two yoke of oxen they considered as only 
a moderate price for one hundred pounds of flour. 

"In 1842 considerable emigration moved forward 
with ox-teams and wagons, but on reaching Fort Hall 
the same story was told them, and the teams were sacri- 
ficed, and the emigrant families reached Dr. Whitman's 
station late in the fall, in very destitute circumstances." 

The journal of General Palmer furnishes a good sum- 
mary of the strategy of the Hudson Bay Company, and 
of their temporary success. 

" While we remained at this place great efforts were 
made to induce the immigration to pursue the route to 
California. The most extravagant tales were related 
respecting the dangers awaiting a trip to Oregon, and 
the difficulties and trials to be surmounted. The perils 
of the way were so magnified as to make us suppose the 
journey to Oregon almost impossible. For instance, the 
two crossings of Snake River, and the crossing of the 
Columbia, and other smaller streams, were represented 
as being attended with great dangers. Also that no 
company heretofore attempting the passage of those 
streams succeeded, but with loss of men, from the 
violence and rapidity of the currents, as also that they 
had never succeeded in getting mi^re than fifteen or 
twenty head of cattle into tht; Wallamette Valley." 



BRITISH STRATEGY AND ANXIETY. 149 

" In addition to the above it was asserted that three or 
four tribes of Indians in the middle regions had com- 
bined for the purpose of preventing our passage through 
their country. In case we escaped destruction at the 
hands of the savages, a more fearful enemy — famine 
— would attend our march, as the distance was so great 
that winter would overtake us before reaching the Cas- 
cade Mountains. On the other hand, as an inducement 
to pursue the California route, we were informed of the 
shortness of the route, when compared with that to Ore- 
gon, as also of t^ie many other superior advantages it 
possessed." 

After the breach was fairly made through the moun- 
tains, and the first low waves of the coming eastern tide 
were heard and then felt — 

" The first low wash of waves where soon 
Shall roll a human sea " — 

the Company placed men at their posts all along the 
Whitman trail to misrepresent facts, alarm the immi- 
grants, delude them, turn them to California, or deprive 
them of their teams. 

In 1842 immigrants to the number of one hundred and 
thirty-seven, men, women, and children, secular and mis- 
sionary, had run the gauntlet of the traders, and escaped 
the financial steel-traps of a monarch monopoly all along 
the path. But they had been forced, by alarms and 
dangers made to order, to leave their wagons behind. 
This number was made up of twenty-one Protestant min- 
isters, three Roman Catholic, fifteen church members, 
thirty-four white women, thirty-two white children, and 
thirty-five American settlers, twenty-five of whom had 
native wives. 

Meanwhile, by the published journals of travelers ia 



150 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

the regions of the Company, by English Review arti- 
cles, and carefully arranged newspaper editorials and 
correspondence in the United States, and by adroit de- 
posit of material in the departments of State and War at 
Washington, the impression was made popular and deep 
in the American mind, that a comfortable overland tran- 
sit for emigrants to Oregon was out of the question. 

The managers of the Hudson Bay Company were men 
of rare ability, and they succeeded in putting their case 
ex parte and most successfully before the United States. 
What the " Edinburgh Review " said of them in 1843 
was already proving to be eminently true. " They are 
chieflly Scotsmen, and a greater proportion of shrewd- 
ness, daring, and commercial activity is probably not to 
be found in the same number of heads in the world." 

Earlier than most men probably they saw the weak- 
ness of the absolute claims of either government to 
Oregon on the ground of discovery or treaty or purchase, 
or of wide and early occupation. They probably foresaw, 
but too late, that the Oregon question would be disposed 
of by settlers. They began, therefore, early, and from 
points distant and wide asunder, to manufacture evidence 
and manipulate public opinion, that Oregon could not be 
reached by an immigrant wagon. Interested witnesses 
filed the evidence into fair volumes and international 
quarterlies, and so made up the case for the trial, which 
they saw was hastening. The United States were thus 
provided with testimony against their own interests and 
rights, and its power was imperceptible, and wide, and 
deep, to hold back immigration. Probably thousands 
were thus kept east of the mountains. Among those 
who joined the large caravan of Dr. Whitman in 1843 
was a family by the name of Zachrey, from Texas, one 



BRITISH STRATEGY AND ANXIETY. 151 

of whom writes, twenty-five years later : " We had been 
told that wagons could not be taken beyond Fort Hall. 
But in this pamphlet the Doctor assured his countrymen 
that wagons could be taken through from Fort Hall to 
the Columbia River and to the Dalles, and from thence, 
by boats, to the Willamette — that himself and mission- 
ary party had taken their families through to the Co- 
lumbia six years before. It was this assurance of the 
missionary that induced my father and several of his 
neighbors to sell out and start at once for this country." 
Mr. Zachrey speaks, not only from the distant point of 
Texas, but probably for very many who would have been 
immigrants on the Oregon trail. 

The Hudson Bay Company felt the emergency, and 
had foreseen the impending crisis, ever since the discus- 
sion and struggle over " the old wagon " at Forts Hall 
and Boise, in 1836. Though laid away in quiet for a 
little time at the latter place, they knew that its broken 
bones would have a resurrection and go on the trail again, 
with more substance than a ghost, now muttering chick- 
chick, and now shouting kai-kash. Not that they could 
lose the absolute ownership and sovereignty of the Hud- 
son Bay lands proper, for they held those in the honor 
and perpetuity of the Crown, but all else west and north- 
west and southwest to the Pacific they held on lease and 
for use only, and the Oregon portion by joint occupation 
with the United States. The discovery that those remote 
regions were worth settling, or could be settled by over- 
land immigrants, might spoil a renewal of their lease, or 
terminate their joint occupation. 

Moreover and specially, the Company must have 
known the agricultural worth of that vast region between 
Lake Winnipeg and the Pacific, and its natural worth 



152 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

to Great Britain for immigration. What is said now so 
abundantly and justly of that country, in the interests of 
the Canadian Pacific railway — a line of about seventeen 
hundred miles — if said in the time to which we have 
now brought down our narrative, might have opened 
that magnificent region to over-crowded Ireland and Eng- 
land too. It was not done, and the United States has 
opened her wild frontier, and diverted the swarming im- 
migrants from the Crown to the Republic. Now since 
development by the United States has shown the value 
of what has been both carelessly and designedly called 
the Great American Desert, the English are looking to 
their part of it and to the saving of their own emigrants 
to their own government. The policy of exclusion 
and secrecy and silence maintained by the Hudson Bay 
Company, lest the fur-bearing animals be scared, dam- 
aged English interests quite as much as it threatened 
American. 

It was a remarkable case of anxiety. This ablest cor- 
poration and highest monopoly in the world — the East 
India Company excepted — was forced to grapple with 
an exigency ! It had had for nearl}^ two centuries the 
ownership and regency of a country of fabulous extent, 
and when, by lease from the Crown, they added to it the 
"Indian countries," this domain was one third beyond 
all European areas. Now such a Company was driven 
into anxiety. It was confronted and troubled and forced 
into strategy by an " old wagon." Under this fear they 
fought all its kith and kin as they drove up to Fort Hall, 
and they spread the impression through the United 
States, from New Hampshire to Texas, that wheels 
could not be driven from the Snake River valley to the 
Columbia. 



BRITISH STRATEGY AND ANXIETY. 153 

Not only did the Company hold this known pass by 
representing it to be impassable for carriages, but they 
kept the knowledge of other passes a secret. While 
their trappers and traders ferreted out the various paths 
through the mountains, the popular ignorance in this 
regard was surprising. When lying by at St. Vrain's 
Fort in 1842, and on his first expedition, Fremont 
could learn nothing of worth as to passes iu that region 
for emigrants through the mountains. St. Vrain's was 
on the South Platte, near to the present city of Greeley 
and not far north of Denver. The main thing that he 
learned was that any possible trails would be impossible 
for wagons. When in that vicinity the following year 
he said : " I had been able to obtain no certain informa- 
tion in regard to the character of the passes in this 
portion of the Rocky Mountains, which had always been 
represented as impracticable for carriages." 

If a carriage highway, of fair comfort for immigrants, 
should be discovered to Oregon, and the fact became 
generally known, settlements in that distant region 
would be hastened and multiplied. The Hudson Bay 
Company well knew this. From the days of the Revolu- 
tion frontier life had been crowding the wilderness west- 
ward, daringly and often recklessly. If this tide should 
force a crevasse through the mountains it would obvi- 
ously spoil the Pacific game preserve of that Company. 
Hence this crisis in their affairs, and great anxiety. 

It is an interesting coincidence, if nothing more, that 
at this time, 1842-3, Sir George Simpson, for many 
years governor of the Company, made the tour of the 
continent across their possessions, spent much time with 
careful observations on the north-west coast, and is said 
to have enjoyed (about that time) protracted social re- 



154 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

lations at Washington with Daniel Webster, then Sec- 
retary of State. 

From Montreal he was twelve weeks and five thou- 
sand miles distant from his starting-point in passing to 
Fort Vancouver, ninety miles from the sea, on the Co- 
lumbia. On the way, he says, at Bear Creek " we ob- 
tained tidings of a large body of emigrants, who had 
left Red River for the Columbia a few days previous 
to our arrival from Montreal." This could have been 
no surprise to Sir George as governor, but it was a nov- 
elty in the policy of the Company. It was the first 
band of immigrants that they had ever authorized within 
their territory, and five years later than the Spalding 
and Whitman band to the same destination. 

The Governor visited the headquarters of Dr. Whit- 
man, and was led to notice and make record that " from 
the inhabited parts of the United States it is separated 
by deserts of rock and sand on either side of the dividing 
ridge of mountains — deserts with whose horrors every 
reader of Washington Irving's ' Astoria ' is familiar. Or, 
if the maritime route be preferred, the voyage from New 
York to the Columbia occupies two hundred degrees of 
latitude, and by the actual course, about one hundred 
and fifty of longitude, while the navigation of the river 
itself, up to the mouth of the Willamette, including the 
detention before crossing the bar, amounts on an average 
to far more than the run of a sailing packet across the At- 
lantic. ... In the direction of California . . . the 
country, if less barren than to the eastward, is far more 
rugged. With respect, moreover, to the savage tribes, 
the former track is more dangerous than the latter." 

Surely this was discouraging enough for any pion- 
eers, who were thinking of trying a farther front in the 



BRITISH STRATEGY AND ANXIETY. 155 

western wilds, whether they would go by land or water. 
And when arrived, the colony would seem to have found 
only an oasis, with an unmeasured border of desert. 

As to previous claims on Oregon and final possession 
the Governor speaks almost like an oracle : " On belialf 
of England, direct arguments are superfluous ; for, until 
some other power puts a good title on paper, actual 
possession must be held to be conclusive in her favor." 
And he has passed " a large body of emigrants " coming 
in from the Red River, and, as we shall see, he has 
planned for a larger one the year following. So, those 
who are in possession must hold the country, and he has 
provided that they shall be forthcoming. 

Then Sir George warms up into prophecy, and utters 
also challenging words : " The United States will never 
possess more than a nominal jurisdiction, nor long pos- 
sess even that on the west side of the Rocky Mountains. 
And supposing the country to be divided to-morrow to 
the entire satisfaction of the most unscrupulous patriot 
in the Union, I challenge Congress to bring my predic- 
tion and its power to the test by imposing the Atlantic 
tariff on the ports of the Pacific." Certainly such sen- 
tences, aptly quoted from the governor of a huge monop- 
oly into periodicals on either side of the Atlantic, would 
give a check to ardent emigrants from the States to Ore- 
gon. There is in this challenge the savor of long resi- 
dence in a semi-civilized region, where the civil and 
military and financial headship have been united in one 
man, and made him necessarily more or less autocratic. 
There is, moreover, what may be called a corporation 
tone in the language : and it is wont to show itself, 
when the magnitude, and absoluteness, and perpetuity 
of the chartered interests, are so as to be able to keep 
even the creating government at a respectful distance. 



156 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

In view of what took place in a few years following 
concerning Oregon, and California, and Alaska, these 
passages from the Governor are decidedly and pleasantly 
breezy. He proceeds : " England and Russia, whether 
as friends or as foes, cannot fail to control the destiny 
of the human race, for good or for evil, to an extent 
which, comparatively, confines every other nation within 
the scanty limits of its own proper locality." This is 
the language of one who has spent his life in trapping 
beaver, and bears, and wolves, and foxes, forgetting that 
men are another race of beings. Since this very Eng- 
lish statement was made the United States have come 
into recognized possession of six thousand four hundred 
and eleven miles of Pacific coast, not reckoning the 
shore indentations of Alaska, while England has about 
four hundred and fifty, not reckoning the shore inden- 
tations of British Columbia. 

It is sometimes thought that on and about the anni- 
versary of her independence the United States indulges 
in an exaggerated use of the English language concern- 
ing her domain ; and then sometimes it is remembered 
that she inherited her mother's tongue and all its elas- 
ticity. Whether the United States has already grown to 
fill " the scanty limits of its own proper locality " may be 
a question. Another addition to her six growths would 
probably be one of necessity rather than of preference. 
She now embraces an area equal to seventy-eight Eng- 
lands. 

As to these vapors of Sir George Simpson concerning 
United States ownership and government on the Pacific 
coast, and growth of territory there or elsewhere, it will 
be kindly to remember that when he said these things 
he had recently emerged into this tnoving world from 



BRITISH STRATEGY AND ANXIETY. ■ 157 

his realm, as governor; in parts of which the mail is 
delivered only annually, and the Canadian newspaper it 
brings is two years old and the European three when 
they read it. 

Leaving Oregon he visited San Francisco, and then 
thought that the only way to prevent its falling into 
American hands was " by the previous occupation of the 
post by Great Britain." And he proceeds to say that 
England " has one road open to her by which she may 
bring California under her sway, without either force 
or fraud, without either the violence of marauders, or 
the effrontery of diplomacy. Mexico owes to British 
subjects a debt of more than fifty millions of dollars. 
By assuming a share of this debt on condition of being 
put in possession of California," etc. 

The Macnamara scheme was a natural outcome of 
these annexing meditations, the unsigned papers of which 
fell into the hands of the United States, while Califor- 
nia, by a kind of civil gravitation, was falling the same 
way. So Sir George Simpson journeyed round the 
world. A pleasing inaptness and almost amusing awk- 
wardness, as to these prophecies about Oregon and the 
United States, and policies about California, is, that 
after the United States had peacefully reclaimed the 
one, and taken possession of the other, Sir George pub- 
lished his narrative and opinions in 1847. 

It is true the Governor had some warrant for his as- 
sumption and confident predictions. For about this 
time the Hudson Bay Company had twenty-three posts 
and five trading-stations in the northwest ; it had ab- 
sorbed ten rival companies, not leaving one, American 
or Russian, to dispute its sway ; and it had turned back 
or broken up seven immigrant expeditions from the 



158 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

States to Oregon. He had not, however, fully esti- 
mated the force, contents, and consequences of Dr. 
Whitman's wagon. 

Meanwhile, the Doctor was receiving at his station 
the remnants of these broken bands, wasted and fam- 
ished. They had sad stories to tell of the gauntlet they 
had run through the cordon of English traders, and of 
the high price of flour and the low price of cattle and 
wagons at Forts Hall and Boise. Like certain men of 
old, they came to the Doctor's door with " old sacks 
upon their asses, and with bottles, old, and rent, and 
bound up, and old shoes, and clouted, upon their feet." 

Immediately, those failures to get through comfortably 
with teams were reported back to the States, and were 
concentrated at Washington, and thence radiated all 
along the western borders. The information concern- 
ing the difficulties, and dangers, and impossibilities of 
passing the rivers, and mountains, and Indians, says the 
Rev. Mr. Spalding, " purported to come from Secretary 
Webster, but really from Governor Simpson, who, mag- 
nifying the statements of his chief trader. Grant, at Fort 
Hall, declared the Americans must be going mad, from 
their repeated, fruitless attempts to take wagons and 
teams through the impassable regions to the Columbia, 
and that the women and children of those wild fanatics 
had been saved from a terrible death only by the re- 
peated and philanthropic labors of Mr. Grant at Fort 
Hall in furnishing them with horses." 

These carefully prepared rumors and misrepresenta- 
tions having seemed to obtain adroitly the endorsement 
of Mr. Webster, held back, for a time, many men, after- 
ward eminent in the history of Oregon, till Whitman 
broke the spell and delusion by his immense caravan 



BRITISH STRATEGY AND ANXIETY. 159 

of wagons, and families, and stock, in the summer of 
1843. 

The story that opens here has not its superior in 
American history for high purpose, daring, romance, and 
grand result. Revere and Sheridan had their rides for 
the welfare of the nation. Marcus Whitman had his to 
provide the Republic with a Pacific side. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

whitman's kide. 

The autumn days came, and russet October, 1842, 
when the Oregon mission of the American Board was 
holding a business session at Waiilatpu. While attend- 
ing to affairs, Dr. Whitman was called to visit a patient 
at Fort Walla Walla, the English trading-post, twenty- 
five miles away. The company at the Fort were in ex- 
cellent spirits at the arrival of fifteen bateaux, loaded 
with Indian goods, and bound up stream to the Frazer 
River region. A score of chief factors had them in 
charge, and these, with the traders and clerks, made a 
jolly addition to the Fort's ordinary occupants. The 
spirits of the company unexpectedly gathering ran high, 
and it did seem to the Doctor as if the English already 
had Oregon in possession. It was a rare occasion to 
most on both sides, when their wilderness paths thus 
crossed, and they could, for an hour, break the painful 
monotony of their exile life, by catching a few ideas 
from another little wilderness world outside of their own. 

Then came the dinner-table, laden with the spoils of 
forest and river, in the style of rude baronial halls. It 
would be difiicult to spread a game feast where nobler 
dishes could be served, than that grand American pre- 
serve there offered. Post men and guests were jubi- 
lant ; the officers sustained well the dignity of Old Eng- 
land at the head, while traders and subordinates, graded 



WHITMAN'S RIDE. 161 

down the table, gave way to easy and rough jollity. 
Dr. Whitman alone represented the United States, in 
such a "joint occupation " of Oregon. 

It has been noticed that at the close of 1841 immi- 
grants from the United States had entered Oregon to 
the number of one hundred and thirty-seven, and at this 
time about one hundred more had been aided. We have 
also marked the fact that in his overland trip to the Pa- 
cific, the preceding year, Sir George Simpson had passed 
an emigrant company, bound out from the Red River to 
the Columbia. The Hudson Bay Company had become 
well persuaded that Oregon could be taken and held 
only by the settlements of civilization, and their object 
now was to secure an advance on the Americans in this 
policy. They, therefore, were working, as we have 
seen, the double scheme of keeping Americans back, and 
bringing in their own people from the Red River coun- 
try. The Selkirk settlement in the Red River valley 
was made for like purpose by this Hudson Bay Com- 
pany in 1811-12, to head off and break up the rival and 
Canadian Northwest Company. In this they not only 
succeeded, but absorbed that Company in 1821. Now 
from the Selkirk settlement they were taking a colony 
to the Columbia to head off the Americans. 

The first brigade from the Red River consisted of about 
forty families, English, Scotch, French, and half-breed, 
and after some dissensions under the rigid government 
of the Company, a part of them had made their way so 
far as to arrive in the upper valley of the Col,umbia. 
Their approach, already rumored, and the condition of 
the Americans, broken and discouraged by the opposi- 
tion at Fort Hall, attracted the attention of Dr. Whit- 
man and his associates. Still the movements of the 
11 



162 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

English did not alarm them as the year 1842 wore away, 
and partly because during this year their own number 
was nearly doubled. 

While the interested dinner party were deep in their 
wild-wood convivialities, a messenger arrived express 
down the river announcing that the colony of one hun- 
dred and forty or more had succeeded in crossing the 
mountains, and were near to Fort Colville — three hun- 
dred and fifty miles up the Columbia. The welcome 
news sent a thrill of joy along the tables, and carried the 
excitement of the hour to a climax. The company in- 
stantly took the import of the announcement and were 
jubilant. Congratulations passed from man to man. A 
young priest, more ardent thaa wise, sprang to his feet, 
and with a twirl of his cap, and a shout, exclaimed : 
" Hurrah for Oregon ! America is too late, and we have 
got the country ! " The more intelligent at the table 
may have remembered that Mr. Canning, the English 
minister, had expressed his determination to maintain, 
as British property, any footing and position which the 
Company might obtain in Oregon. 

As by instinct Dr. Whitman seized the fact announced, 
and measured its full import. He took it as an index to 
a policy. At once he assumed that it should be known 
at Washington, and a tide of immigration started for the 
northwest from another direction. He fixed his pur- 
pose, laid his plans, excused a hasty departure, and in 
two hours his Cayuse pony, white with foam, stood be- 
fore the mission door at Waiilatpu. He could not wait 
to dismount till he had told of the English plot, the peril 
of Oregon, the need of making the fact known to his 
government, his purpose to face the winter and the 
mountains and plains and Indians, to carry the news, 



WHITMAN'S RIDE. 163 

to start immediately, and to return the following season 
with a long train of immigrant wagons. 

Of course it was with opposition, reluctance, and anx- 
iety that his associates came slowly into the plans of the 
heroic man. And with reason. Few men could at onoe 
grasp the full import of that English scheme, and re- 
solve to thwart it in person. Dr. Whitman's associates 
needed time to overtake his thoughts. As such national 
exigencies are rare, so are the men to meet them. We 
had another man on the Pacific coast, four years later, 
who was adequate to such an exigency. He took oral 
hints from a messenger, and the unwritten orders of cir- 
cumstances, and turned pivoted California to the Union, 
in the face of foreign fleets and agents, who were there 
with well matured plans for other ends. The prompt 
action of Fremont and the splendid results tangled some 
military tape. 

The winter was already on the mountains, and while 
a summer trip was hard enough, the cold and snows of 
a winter journey would reduce the chances for success 
and life to a minimum. He had no time for delay, for 
he supposed that the Ashburton-Webster Treaty, which 
would cover the Oregon question, was in progress, and 
might be hastened through before Congress should rise 
on the fourth of March. It was now opening October. 
Five months would be short time enough to allow for 
four thousand miles, mostly made on horseback. Al- 
lowance must be made for some terrible storms, when 
they would be compelled to lose days in snow-bound 
camps. Half frozen and winter-swollen streams were 
to be crossed on extemporized floats, which it would 
require much time to construct. Hostile Indians might 
make it indispensable to take detours or to hide for 
safety. 



164 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

For some or all of these reasons, it would be the part 
of wisdom to avoid the direct route from Fort Hall to 
the Missouri, as more dangerous, both from the severity 
of the winter, and the hostile mood of the Blackfeet In- 
dians. It would seem best to strike from Fort Hall 
southerly through the Salt Lake Basin into New Mexi- 
co, and thence to the Santa Fe trail and Bent's Fort on 
the Arkansas, and so to St. Louis. 

A slight recollection of the terrible experiences of 
Fremont in those mountains, when the dangers and 
means of resistance and of escape were much better 
known, and a recollection also of the stornjs that have 
blocked railroads in the mountain passes and on the 
plains that lay before Dr. Whitman will prepare one to 
estimate the daring of the man. No wonder his weep- 
ing wife entreated and his associates almost forbade his 
rash enterprise. But it was in vain. All that was 
patriotic in the noble man added itself to the Christian 
in stirring a sense of duty, and he said to them that, for 
the emergency, he did not belong so much to the Amer- 
ican Board, as he did to his country, and if they pressed 
opposition he would throw up his connection with the 
mission. 

The issue now centred in that mission house was the 
possession of the present State of Oregon, and also the 
territories of Idaho and Washington — an area equal to 
thirty-two states as large as Massachusetts. After six 
years of residence and travel there, Dr. Whitman knew 
the natural magnificence and possibilities of the coun- 
try, as probably no other American did. Then he re- 
alized how far off, and how little known or appreciated 
Oregon was in the east, and how slow the old states and 
settlements were to seize the grand issues involved in the 



WHITMAN'S RIDE. 165 

new. The stoppage of immigrants at Fort Hall was 
fully explained, when at the dinner table the English 
shouted a welcome to the brigade from Red River. It 
was a matter of actual knowledge and certainty that Dr. 
Whitman could open the gates to an incoming American 
tide. He knew that he held the key to those gateways, 
and he felt a deep conviction of dnty that he must use 
it. Then the Secretary of State must be impressed by 
United States evidence as well as by Hudson Bay Com- 
pany's evidence, as to the accessibility of Oregon to emi- 
grant wagons from the States. He must be enlightened 
enough on the general question to save the Union from 
an irreparable calamity. 

The opposition to Dr. Whitman's purpose slowly gave 
way as the mission conference realized that it had before 
it the man who brought the wagon over the mountains 
six years before. At first the wife yielded, that noble 
woman, who had a broad American heroism. She finally 
gave up her husband to her country, much as she had 
given up herself to Christian missions among its Indians. 
When she assented to the daring endeavor of her hus- 
band, it could not be manly or Christian for others longer 
to dissent. 

Now the preparations were hastened for the depart- 
ure ; and in twenty-four hours from the enthusiastic 
scenes of the dinner table at Fort Walla Walla, and the 
rash assertion of the ardent priest, Dr. Whitman was in 
the saddle, and headed for Washington. The energy 
and promptness of the man remind one of Xavier on a 
memorable occasiouc He was totally surprised by his 
sudden appointment, by the Order of Jesuits, to the 
mission to Asia. When asked how soon he would be 
ready to depart for his continental and life work, he 
answered : " To-morrow." 



166 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

Amos Lawrence Love joy, who had recently arrived 
from the east with the last band of immigrants, consented 
to accompany the Doctor on his perilous journey, so 
full of issues, and, as the end proved, so full of splendid 
ones for American history. 

We may easily fancy the unsleeping mission, working 
through twenty-four hours to make the outfit the safest 
and lightest and most enduring possible ; food, the inevit- 
able axe, arms for defense and for game, medicines and 
whatnot for various unimaginable emergencies — all 
these must be anticipated, provided, and packed on horse 
and mule. The two horses for the gentlemen, and two or 
three pack-mules for a guide and supplies, were in readi- 
ness before a second sunset, and Marcus Whitman, with 
liis companion, took the stirrup for Washington and 
Webster, and for a cavalcade of immigrant wagons to 
possess Oregon. 

" Into the valley of death they rode." 

If Mr. Grant, known in the Mountains as "Johnny 
Grant," made a mistake in letting Dr. Whitman 
through with his " old wagon " six years before, they 
made a greater one in letting him return on horseback 
to the States. But a man who carried a permit from the 
War Department, signed by Lewis Cass, Secretary, to 
travel, reside, and work for Christianity in the northwest, 
could not be meddled with in safety, as if he were a private 
trapper from the States around beaver-dams. Eleven 
days out and six hundred and forty miles brought him 
face to face with Johnny Grant at Fort Hall. The 
party had left Waiilatpu, Oct. 3, 1842. This section of 
their route had been one of great peril and suffering to 
some emigrant and trading parties, notably that of As- 
tor, under Wilson P. Hunt, in 1811-12. The interview 



WHITMAN'S RIDE. 167 

between Jolinny Grant and his old friend the Doctor 
must have been an interesting one to witness, since each 
was conscious of a purpose to take and hold Oregon, by 
immigration, for the party he represented, and since 
both jointly knew how many companies had been broken 
up, or turned to California, or forwarded in saddles, after 
being deprived of their wagons on that familiar spot. 

For reasons already given Dr. Whitman struck south- 
erly from Fort Hall to Taos and Santa Fe. At the 
latter city he would come on the great Santa Fe trail of 
the St. Louis and New Mexican traders, and so find his 
way the more easily to the frontier settlements. The 
detour, however, in the sharp angle made at that old 
Spanish capital would add hundreds of miles to the 
journey, but it was hoped it would lessen proportion- 
ately the hardships and dangers of the terrible expedi- 
tion. 

No diary or narrative of the expedition was left by 
Dr. Whitman, but in the five years remaining of his 
eventful life he gave here and there, conversationally, 
many of the thrilling incidents of that wonderful jour- 
ney, and these aid much in drawing out and connecting 
the thread of events. His companion as far as Bent's 
Fort on the Arkansas, Mr. Lovejoy, has given a graphic 
summary of the trip from Fort Hall to Fort Bent. 
Before introducing some passages from Mr. Lovejoy 's 
account, it may be well to state that the course of the 
expedition was due south from Fort Hall, and mainly in 
the direction of the present Utah Southern railway, with 
Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake on the right, passing 
by the site, probably, of the coming Mormon city. 
Thence their course was south and east, across Green 
River, and then the heads of Grand River in southwest- 



168 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

ern Colorado, then over the upper branches of the San 
Juan, now so famous for its mines, and still south and 
east to Taos, and thence about sixty miles south to 
Santa Fe. 

" From Fort Hall to Fort Uintah we met with terribly 
severe weather. The deep snows caused us to lose much 
time. Here we took a new guide for Fort Uncompah- 
gre on Grand River, in Spanish country. Passing over 
high mountains, we encountered a terrible snow-storm, 
that compelled us to seek shelter in a dark defile ; and 
although we made several attempts, we were detained 
some ten days, when we got upon the mountains, and 
wandered for days, when the guide declared he was 
lost, and would take us no farther. This was a terrible 
blow to the Doctor, 

" But he determined not to give it up, and returned to 
the Fort for another guide, I remaining with the horses, 
feeding them on cotton-wood bark. The seventh day 
he returned. We reached, as our guide informed us. 
Grand River, two hundred yards wide, which was frozen 
on either side about one third. The guide regarded 
it as too dangerous, but the Doctor, nothing daunted, 
was the first to take to the water. He mounted his 
horse, and the guide and myself pushed them off the ice 
into the boiling, foaming stream. Away they went, com- 
pletely under water, horse and all, but directly came up, 
and after buffeting the waves and foaming current, he 
made for the ice on the opposite side, a long way down 
the stream, — leaped upon the ice, and soon had his 
noble animal by his side. The guide and I forced in 
the pack-mules and followed the Doctor's example, and 
were soon drying our frozen clothes by a comfortable 
fire. 



WHITMAN'S RIDE. 169 

*< "We reached Taos in about thirty days. We suffered 
from intense cold and from want of food, compelled to 
use the flesh of dogs, mules, or such other animals as 
came in our reach. We remained about fifteen days, 
and left for Bent's Fort (via Santa Fe) which we reached 
January 3, 1843. The Doctor left here on the seventh." 

At this later day, when the perils of winter travel in 
those mountains are better known, it seems more and 
more a marvel that this party was ever heard from again. 
When they put out from Fort Uintah for Fort IJn- 
compahgre they were most unfortunate in their guide as 
well as in the weather. It was with difficulty that they 
could travel through the deep snows even when they 
knew the trail, and much time was consumed in floun- 
dering through defiles and over craggy heights. Then 
that terrible storm struck them there in the wild mount- 
ains, darkening the air almost to a premature night, 
and the ten days of enforced shelter and waiting in the 
gorge left the Doctor with intense anxiety about what he 
presumed was the progress of the treaty at Washington on 
the boundary question. If would not be strange if he saw, 
in fancy, the fatal signatures that would sacrifice Oregon. 
Repeated attempts were made to force the snow block- 
ade, but in vain. One attempt, barely suggested in Mr. 
Lovejoy's letter, was critical, and came near being fatal 
to the expedition. The energy and impatience of Dr. 
Whitman had overruled the judgment of his guide, and 
the party attempted to escape their prison of mountains 
and snow by going over the divide. The intense cold 
and the mad storm made th'e animals quite uncontroll- 
able, and the freezing, lonely squad of men and beasts 
were coming to be as immovable as a group of statuary. 
The guide confessed that he was lost and gave up. Then 



170 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

that one man, like another Napoleon straggling through 
Russian snows to recover from a terrible defeat, assumed 
the direction, and attempted to turn back for the camp- 
fire of those wasted and impatient days — a camp they 
had so unwisely left that morning. But the storm had 
done its work, and no trace of their track could be found. 
They wandered to and fro as men mazed or aimless. 
Finally man and beast became chilled, and hopeless, and 
stationary, and the snows were wrapping them in wind- 
ing-sheets. 

Then once and once only in his life, so far as appears, 
the Doctor yielded to the inevitable, and gave up all as 
lost. He dismounted and commended himself, his dis- 
tant wife, his missionary companions and work, and his 
Oregon, to the Infinite One, and so awaited the silent, 
snowy burial of the party. By and by the guide, numb 
and stiff on his mule, thought he saw significant move- 
ments in the head and ears of the animal. That strange 
beast does sometimes appear to turn student and handle 
a problem. At least, such was the appearance in this 
case, as he turned his ears right and left, and then set 
them with a projection forward, as if he would direct 
attention. To his Mexican rider all this seemed to 
declare knowledge and convictions. To those familiar 
with that old Spanish country and people it will come 
up, on recollection, that a Mexican and a mule have a 
good deal in common which might be called mutual un- 
derstanding. Therefore, the freezing and hopeless rider 
remarked : " This mule will find the camp if he can live 
to reach it." So saying, he dropped the bridle rein on 
the saddle-bow and gave the animal his full liberty. 

The stupid brute, yet so full of instinct, was master 
of the situation. He at once left the stormy divide, 



WHITMAN'S RIDE. 171 

turning a canon here and a cliffy slope there, and still 
downward plunging through snows, and sometimes slid- 
ing over half precipices. He was neither guided nor 
spurred, but had his own will and gait, onward and 
downward, till he came to thick timber and a dark ra- 
vine. The surroundings slowly put on a familiar look 
to the party ; then they snuffed smoke, and soon the 
mule stopped by the smouldering logs of the morning 
camp-fire, too rashly left. Here they warmed, and fed, 
and rested, yet other days. 

But the reassured life and returning spirits of the 
Doctor chafed over lost time, and he was gone seven 
days to Fort Uintah for a new guide. If the reader 
will pause long enough on these pages to make that 
seven days' trip his own, in fancy, he will have a better 
measure of the peril of it, and of the man who made it. 
Under the new guide the party arrived at Grand 
River, two hundred feet of ice on each shore, with two 
hundred of rapid water between the two icy borders. 
The Doctor made the first plunge, went under, came up, 
steered across, and was soon as thoroughly encased in 
ice as ever was an old warrior in his coat of mail. His 
horse scrambled on the ice and to the shore like a chased 
deer. Soon there was the roaring camp-fire, encircled 
by dripping men and animals. The same man this is 
who made the Rocky Mountains give up to a wagon. 

Again, after a hard day over a bald prairie in a wild 
storm, our company reached one of the branches of the 
Arkansas. The clean grass, without tree, shrub, or 
any fuel, comes down to the river brink, and to the 
smooth, thin ice that spreads across the stream. The 
opposite shore was wooded, and a fire must be had, for 
the wet storm had passed by, and a freezing night was 



172 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

to follow. The ice was a thin pretext, impassable for a 
horse, somewhat tempting and very doubtful for a man. 
Like a daring boy, when skating is not yet, and the ice 
will not support him on his feet, the Doctor lay flat and 
wriggled himself over, and then pushed back fuel and 
axe before him. A warm supper and a sweet sleep fol- 
lowed. 

Alas, for the axe ! The helve has been cracked and 
then wound with raw hide. That night a wolf, for the 
sake of the skin, stole it from its hiding-place under the 
edge of the tenting, and the company never saw it again. 
Nearer to Fort Hall the loss would probably have proved 
very serious if not fatal to the expedition. But they 
soon came into the vicinity of the lone cabins of daring 
settlers on the extreme frontier, and the wolfish act 
proved only an annoyance. 

But we are ahead of our party on the trail. Santa 
Fe welcomed and refreshed them — that oldest city of 
European occupation on the continent. De Vaca and 
Coronado, perhaps Cortez, the Duke of Albuquerque, 
Pike, Kit Carson, and Charles Bent, its first United 
States governor, had been there before him, and Gene- 
ral Kearney three years later, when he took all New 
Mexico for the Republic. Probably no public building 
in North America is so old as its adobe palace, or has 
witnessed so n^any civil and bloody changes. Its walls 
could tell of intrigues, plots, revolutions, and assassi- 
nations, as none other in the United States. 

It was a long but easier journey to Bent's Fort on the 
Arkansas. This ample inclosure, somewhat fortified 
after the rough needs of the frontier, has made manv a 
weary traveler glad by its hearty and abundant hob- 
pitalities. The fort was a quadrangle, one hundred 



WHITMAN'S RIDE. 173 

feet on the sides. Its walls were of adobe, thirty feet 
high, and its northeast and diag5nal corner supported 
bastions and a few cannon. The apartments were built 
against the walls on the inside, after the Mexican man- 
ner. In the centre stood the robe-press, where furs and 
peltries were deposited. Its genial founder, of Massa- 
chusetts parentage, Virginia birth, and Missouri home, 
pioneer in the New Mexican trade, built the post in 
1829. In 1880 I found it to be a rude and wild cor- 
ral, deserted and decaying. 

The Republic is much indebted to Charles Bent, and 
his associate brothers of the border, and to St. Vrain, 
their partner. Charles Bent was one of the first to in- 
troduce modern times into that dwarfed offspring of 
Spain, of the sixteenth century. By a caravan com- 
merce between St. Louis and the southwest, whose round 
trip required a full summer, he led that region up to a 
connection with the rest of the world. The draught-ox 
of the Arkansas and Rio Grande is indebted to him for 
its first iron shoe. A man of breadth, energy, and true 
love of country, he was wisely appointed by General 
Kearney as the 'first Governor of New Mexico in 1846. 
But he was taken off mournfully by assassination at 
Taos, within four months ; and after a third interment 
his remains rest under an honorable monument and epi- 
taph in the Masonic cemetery at Santa Fe. 

Mr. Lovejoy, exhausted and broken, was left at Bent's 
Fort to recover himself, and in the July following he 
joined the Doctor and his outgoing caravan, above Lar- 
amie. The Doctor himself rested in the good cheer of 
the fort, and among fellow citizens, for only four days, 
and on the seventh of January, 1843, he pressed on for 
Washington and Webster. 



174 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

On his arrival in St. Louis it was my good fortune 
that he should be quartered, as a guest, under the same 
roof, and at the same table with me. The announce- 
ment of the man, in the little city of twenty thousand, 
as it was then, came as a surprise and a novelty. In 
those times it was a rare possibility for one to come up 
in midwinter from Bent's Fort or Santa Fe ; much more 
from Fort Hall and the Columbia. The Rocky Moun- 
tain men, trappers, and traders, the adventurers in New 
Mexico, and the contractors for our military posts, the 
Indian men laying up vast fortunes, half from the gov- 
ernment and half from the poor Indian — gathered about 
Dr. Whitman for fresh news from those places of inter- 
est. Those who had friends on the plains, or in the moun- 
tains, or Spanish territory, sought opportunities to ply 
him with questions. For none had come over since the 
river closed, or crossed the frontier inward since the win- 
ter set in. What about furs and peltries ? How many 
buffalo robes would come down by June on the spring 
rise of the Missouri ? Were Indian goods at the posts 
in flush, or fair, or scant supply ? What tribes were on 
the war-path? What were the chances of breaking 
Indian treaties, and for removals from old reservations ? 
Who seemed to have the inside favor with the Indian 
agents ? What American fur-traders had the Hudson 
Bay Company recently driven to the wall ? What 
could he say of the last emigrant company for Oregon 
in which one Amos Lawrence Lovejoy went out ? 
What had become of so and so, who were in previous 
companies that broke up at Fort Hall ? 

Many of their questions were as fresh and lively then 
as they are to-day concerning the Indian country ; and 
as heavy fortunes lay back of them, at least it was hoped 



WHITMAN'S RIDE. 175 

SO. Our Indian field, however, has changed somewhat 
as to product, and now yields less fur and more green- 
backs, owing to the modern use of different traps, and 
gins, and snares, and to a change of places in setting 
them — more on the Potomac and less on the Columbia 
waters. 

But the Doctor was in great haste, and could not 
delay to talk of beaver, and Indian goods, and wars, and 
reservations, and treaties. He had questions and not 
answers. Was the Ashburton Treaty concluded ? Did 
it cover the northwest ? Where, and what, and whose 
did it leave Oregon ? He was soon answered. Webster 
and Ashburton had signed that treaty on the ninth of 
August preceding, on the twenty-sixth the Senate had 
ratified it, and on the tenth of November, President 
Tyler had proclaimed it as the law of the land. While 
the Doctor, therefore, was floundering in the snows, or 
hunting a lost camp-fire, or exchanging guides, or swim- 
ming frozen rivers, somewhere on the trail of Forts 
Wintee and Uncompahgre, the Oregon question was 
settled for the present by postponement. 

Then, instantly, he had other questions for his St. 
Louis visitors. Was the Oregon question under discus- 
sion in Congress ? What opinions, projects, or bills, 
were being urged in Senate or House ? Would any- 
thing important be settled before the approaching ad- 
journment on the fourth of March ? That might be a 
critical and even a closing day for great American inter- 
ests on the northwest coast. Could he reach Washing- 
ton before the adjournment? He must leave at once, 
and he went. 

Marcus Whitman once seen, and in our family circle, 
telling of his one business — he had but one — was a 



176 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

man not to be forgotten by the writer. He was of me- 
dium height, more compact than spare, a stout shoulder, 
and large head not much above it, covered with sti:ff 
iron-gray hair, while his face carried all the moustache 
and whiskers that four months had been able to put on 
it. He carried himself awkwardly, though perhaps cour- 
teously enough for trappers, Indians, mules, and griz- 
zlies, his principal company for six years. He seemed 
built as a man for whom more stock had been furnished 
than worked in symmetrically and gracefully. There 
was nothing peculiarly quick in his motion or speech, 
and no trace of a fanatic ; but under control of a thorough 
knowledge of his business, and with deep, ardent con- 
victions about it, he was a profound enthusiast. A will- 
ful resolution and a tenacious earnestness would impress 
you as marking the man. 

His dress would now appear much more peculiar than 
in those days and in that city. For St. Louis was then 
no stranger to blanket Indians, and Yellowstone trap- 
pers, in buckskin and buffalo. The Doctor was in coarse 
fur garments and vesting, and buckskin breeches. He 
wore a buffalo coat, with a head-hood for emergencies in 
taking a storm, or a bivouac nap. What with heavy 
fur leggings and boot-moccasins, his legs filled up well 
his Mexican stirrups. If memory is not at fault with 
me, his entire dress, when on the street, did not show 
one square inch of woven fabric. 

With all this warmth and almost burden of skin and 
fur clothing, he bore the marks of the irresistible cold 
and merciless storms of his journey. His fingers, ears, 
nose, and feet had been frost-bitten, and were giving 
him much trouble. When he came to the extreme 
east, to speak officially of his mission among the Indians, 



WHITMAN'S RIDE. 177 

it is recorded that some sensitive gentlemen suggested 
that a certain suit of black — and a little worn — might 
be more becoming. That was the time when some 
American Geographical Society was needed to receive 
him with publicity and formality in his full Rocky 
Mountain suit, and afterward decorate him with the 
badges and insignia of an eminent explorer and discov- 
erer. 

Are not we Americans slow to discover historic step- 
ping-stones till they become foot-worn ? 

Dr. Whitman, in St. Louis, was midway between Ore- 
gon and Washington, and he carried business of mighty 
import, that must not be delayed by private interests 
and courtesies. In the wilds and storms of the moun- 
tains he had fed on mules and dogs, yet now sumptuous 
and complimentary dinners had no attractions for him. 
He was happy to meet men of the army, of commerce, 
and of fur, but his urgent business was to see Daniel 
Webster. A few days among the elegances of cheery 
homes, and in the enjoyment of genial courtesies, might 
make him too late at the seat of government, and render 
worthless his four months of hardships and perils on the 
long Oregon trail. Four months in the saddle, and 
" The fate of a nation was riding that night." 

So far the horse had carried Oregon ; now the Doctor 
must see it speedily and safely to the end of the four 
thousand miles. Exchanging saddle for stage — for 
the river was closed by ice — he pressed on, and arrived 
at Washington March third, just five months from the 
Columbia to the Potomac. 

Our records are not without illustrations of heroic 
action of this kind. The midnight ride of Paul Revere, 
made classic by one of our sweetest poets, constituted an 
12 



178 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

epoch in the life of the young Republic. Lieutenant 
Gillespie, going by Vera Cruz, the city of Mexico and 
California coast to Monterey, there took saddle to over- 
haul Lieutenant Fremont, in Oregon, with dispatches 
from Washington. It was quite after the old Roman 
order, that he look to it that the American Republic 
receive no damage in California. Sheridan made his 
marvelous ride to Winchester and turned a defeat and 
rout into a victory. There have been eminent express 
rides, full of import to families and states ; these have 
carried messages for war and for peace, for trade and 
towering ambition. It would be difficult, however, to 
find one that for distance, time, heroic daring, peril, 
suffering, and magnificent consequences, could equal 
Whitman's Ride. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

OREGON NOT IN THE TREATY OF WEBSTER AND 
ASHBURTON. 

Dr. Whitman arrived in Washington too late, and 
yet not too late. When he left the Columbia for the 
Potomac, his latest information from the States, brought 
over by his returning companion, Mr. Lovejoy, was that 
a treaty was under negotiation between Mr. Webster, 
the Secretary of State, and Lord Ash burton, English 
envoy, to settle the boundary question between the two 
nations, and it was supposed that Oregon was included. 
To have the northwestern boundary question covered 
and settled in that treaty, the Doctor was too late ; for 
while he was yet not forty days on his national and con- 
tinental journey, the treaty was proclaimed as the law 
of the land. Mr. Webster and Lord Ashburton had 
completed and signed it nearly two months before he 
started, and Oregon was left out. But he was not too 
late to furnish new and much needed information, to ex- 
pose scheming, to show the accessibility of Oregon to 
the old east, to draw from his own residence and travel 
and study there, for six years, leading facts concerning 
its natural and national worth, and, by all this, to stay 
a damaging foreclosure of the question, secure final 
equity and save national honor — for all this he was just 
in time. Let us see how the case stands when this Pa- 
cific man, in fur and buckskin, weather-beaten and frost- 
bitten, enters the office of the Secretary of vState. 



180 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

The boundary between the United States and the 
British Possessions, described by the treaty of peace, 
1783, was either unfortunately worded or most unfor- 
tunately handled. In interpreting phrases in the treaty 
such embarrassing questions as these were raised : Which 
river is the St. Croix ? Where is the north-west angle 
of Nova Scotia ? What are the highlands between this 
angle and the northwest head of the Connecticut River ? 
Which stream is the northwest head of that river ? 
May the rivers emptying into the Bay of Fundy be said 
to fall into the Atlantic Ocean ? A joint commission of 
1794 finally agreed on what is the St. Croix, and fixed 
a monument at its source. For forty-eight years the 
boundary question lingered before joint commissions, 
and in delays such as only diplomacy can weave, and 
nothing more was settled. In 1839 new impetus was 
given to the subject^ and Mr. Webster was urged as 
special minister to England to hasten affairs. He drew 
up a memorandum of plan for settlement, which was 
highly approved by President Van Buren and others. 
But the proposed plan was not adopted, the envoy was 
not sent, and fruitless negotiations went on. Mr. Web- 
ster meanwhile spent a few months in a private and 
social way in England, and was much consulted on the 
boundary question. 

In 1841 Mr. Webster passed from the Senate to the 
Cabinet of President Harrison, as Secretary of State. 
After the painfully early death of the President, Web- 
ster continued in the Cabinet when the Vice-President, 
Mr. Tyler, succeeded to the presidency. In the sum- 
mer of this year 1841 Mr. Webster informed Mr. Fox, 
the English minister at Washington, that he was ready 
to attempt the settlement of the boundary question. 



OREGON NOT IN THE TREATY. 181 

The antecedents of negotiation were not very encourag- 
ing, and it required some confidence in a plan, and some 
boldness, to renew the efforts. For it was now fifty- 
eight years since the treaty of peace had stipulated a 
boundary, and so far only the St. Croix River had been 
identified, and a monument set at its source. When in 
1803 a Joint commission was just being completed to run 
the line the Louisiana Purchase was made, which would 
carry United States territory beyond the Mississippi, up 
somewhere to British territory, and therefore, for pru- 
dential reasons, the United States delayed action. In 
1814, by the Treaty of Ghent, another joint boundary 
commission was secured, but could not agree, and it set- 
tled nothing. Then the question had rest, practically, 
till 1827, when, through a convention, it was referred to 
the King of the Netherlands as arbitrator, but his decision 
was rejected by both parties in 1831. During his double 
term of office President Jackson made five separate ef- 
forts to adjust the boundary, and as many failures. His 
successor, Mr. Van Buren, in his first message, spoke of 
" abortive efforts made by the executive for a period of 
more than half a century," and closed his administration, 
leaving the question involved in greater " intricacies 
and complexities and perplexities," among which was 
the famous Aroostook war. 

In view of this disheartening history of the question, 
Secretary Webster proposed to undertake it anew, and 
on the fourth of April, 1842, Lord Ashburton arrived at 
Washington, as envoy, with full powers to negotiate 
with him. Mr. Webster had not only the United States 
to satisfy in this delicate business, and now sensitive by 
the irritations of more than half a century, but Maine, 
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New 



182 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

York had state interests involved, and were alive to 
the integrity of their territory, and to their honor. The 
two ministers signed the treaty August ninth, 1842 ; the 
Senate ratified it on the twenty-sixth ; Lord Ashburton 
sailed with the treaty for home October thirteenth ; the 
treaty was ratified by the Queen, returned from Eng- 
land, and proclaimed November tenth, 1842. 

The long standing of the question, the perplexities 
which had accumulated around it, the length of line set- 
tled, the magnitude of territory, and other issues involved, 
and the prompt action in four brief months, make the 
act a remarkable one in the history of diplomacy. 
When Dr. Whitman was thirty eight days out from the 
Columbia, and somewhere in the snows, between Fort 
Hall and Taos, the treaty became the law of the land. 
But it contained no reference to Oregon. Neither the 
treaty nor the official correspondence alludes to Oregon. 
It determined the boundary, " beginning at the Monu- 
ment at the source of the river St. Croix," and ending 
at the Rocky Mountains on the forty-ninth parallel. 

In his annual message of December, following the 
proclamation of the treaty, President Tyler thus refers 
to the Oregon interests, and shows why they were put 
by for the time. " It became evident, at an early hour 
of the late negotiations, that any attempt for the time 
being satisfactorily to determine those rights would 
lead to a protracted discussion, which might embrace in 
its failure other more pressing matters ; and the ex- 
ecutive did not regard it as proper to waive all the ad- 
van tao^es of an honorable adjustment of other difficulties 
of great magnitude and importance, because this, not so 
immediately pressing, stood in the way." 

Mr. Webster regarded the negotiation of this treaty 



OREGON NOT IN THE TREATY. 183 

as one of the greatest and most important acts of his 
eventful life. For this diplomatic success he was ex- 
posed to some criticism, grave and petty. Maine was a 
party to the negotiations, by her commissioners, and 
endorsed the result, yet some of her worthy citizens felt 
that her rights had not been well maintained, and that 
portions of her territory had been sacrificed to peace 
and compromise, though probably nine tenths of her 
people to-day approve the treaty. The total area in 
dispute in Maine was twelve thousand and twenty-seven 
acres. The west was disappointed that the Oregon 
question was not included and settled. A little sectional 
jealousy was stirred. 

During the three or four following years, and till the 
settlement of Oregon affairs in 1846, the eastern boun- 
dary treaty was frequently a subject of adverse criticism 
in Congress. As Webster himself said, it was made 
" the subject of disparaging, disapproving, sometimes 
contumelious remarks." Perhaps this should not sur- 
prise us. There were men of lofty and worthy ambi- 
tions in Congress and out of it, but only one could carry 
off the honor of this great achievement. Then there 
were m«n who could not presume to pass around our 
continent, and examine with a broad and international 
view the boundary line at the Atlantic end and at the 
Pacific end. At that time, and more so now, our coun- 
try was quite large for some men. 

At one time the affair ran close to bloody conflict in 
the Aroostook war, but General Scott went down and 
stayed the rising passions, as afterward and for a simi- 
lar purpose he visited the coasts of Oregon. Probably 
it was this crisis, as well as some others, that Webster 
covered in a remark to a leading merchant who had 



184 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION, 

congratulated him on the successful work : " There have 
been periods when I could have kindled a war, but, sir, 
I remembered that I was negotiating for a Christian 
country with a Christian country, and that we were all 
living in the nineteenth century of the Christian era. 
My duty, sir, was clear and plain." 

The mayor of Philadelphia recognized the same fact 
gracefully, when introducing Mr. Webster at a dinner 
which the city had given him : " In seasons of danger 
he has been to us a living comforter; and more than 
once has restored this nation to serenity, security, and 
prosperity." This was soon after the popular frenzy of 
" fifty-four forty, or fight," had calmed down on the 
parallel of forty-nine — Webster's original line. Other 
critical issues and irritating questions which hot blood 
could have turned into war came up and went into 
peaceable settlement, notably the Canadian burning of 
the Caroline, the right of search for English citizens on 
American vessels, and cooperation for the suppression 
of the slave-trade on the African coasts. 

And the more is the wonder that he peacefully car- 
ried the great issue through such grave danger of war, 
since those were days of hot blood and foolishly high 
spirit. About this time, John Quincy Adams said, re- 
ferring to Graves, who shot Cilley in a duel : " Four or 
five years ago, there came to this house a man with his 
hands and face dripping with the blood of murder, the 
blotches of which are yet hanging upon him." At the 
spring horse-races, in 1842, and about the days of the 
opening negotiations between Ashburton and Webster, 
the horse of Stanley of North Carolina jostled the horse 
that was carrying Wise, and the fiery man resented the 
act with his cane. A duel was stayed only by the police, 



OREGON NOT IN THE TREATY. 185 

and the only physical harm was to the left eye of Rev- 
erdy Johnson, which a rebounding ball destroyed, while 
Johnson was teaching Stanley how to kill Wise. The 
suppression of the war spirit, in such times, was a sub- 
lime conquest. 

These were the relations of Mr. Webster in the popu- 
lar mind, when Doctor Whitman, rough in fur and 
buckskin, entered the office of the Secretary of State. 
Wearied as Mr. Webster may well have been in set- 
tling so much of a difficulty which many others had 
given half a century to, and failed ; ungenerously criti- 
cised by a few, as having yielded all to England, while 
Lord Ashburton suffered a similar condemnation for 
having yielded all to the United States, we may well 
suppose that Dr. Whitman would not find him enthu- 
siastic over the northwestern boundary question. In- 
deed, the two negotiators had paused at the Rocky 
Mountains, because, as the President stated, any at- 
tempts to carry the line farther would not offer hope- 
ful results. It does not appear, moreover, that the 
Secretary was under any executive instructions to go 
into the Pacific side of the business, and certainly Lord 
Ashburton was not. 

A great disappointment was felt in Oregon that it 
was not provided for in the treaty, as the people there, 
without full reason, had presumed it would be, and the 
heroic endeavor of Dr. Whitman had seemed to them 
to guarantee it. The mistakes appear to have origi- 
nated in Oregon, where expectations were highest, and 
information most scanty, and disappointment was the 
keenest. 

I have devoted so much care to the analysis and cor- 
rection of this error, not only to relieve the fame of 



186 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

our great diplomat from an unfortunate and of course 
undesigned shadow, but also to set forth in its historic, 
and therefore noblest light, the achievement of Dr. 
Whitman. Oregon was on the other side of the conti- 
nent, with formidable wilderness and deserts between, 
and information from Washington traveled slowly and 
scantily. The inner history of the Ashburton and 
Webster negotiations rested long among the semi-secrets 
of the Department of State. Webster himself says : 
" The papers accompanying the treaty were voluminous. 
Their publication was long delayed, waiting for the ex- 
change of ratifications ; and, when finally published, they 
were not distributed to any great extent, or in large 
numbers. The treaty, meantime, got before the public 
surreptitiously, and, with the documents, came out by 
piecemeal. We know that it is unhappily true that, 
away from the large commercial cities of the Atlantic 
coast, there are few of the public prints of the country 
which publish official papers on such an occasion at 
length." 

The pressure of Oregon into the Ashburton Treaty 
would probably have done one of three things, prevented 
the 'treaty altogether, excluded the United States from 
Oregon, or produced a war. Delay and apparent defeat 
were the basis of our real success, and the great work 
of Marcus Whitman, by his timely presence at Wash- 
ington, was in making that success sure. 

The meeting of two such ministers of state for such 
high ends, and with such high resolve, is a scene good 
to be looked at by nations, and cabinets, and philanthro- 
pists. The scene is as much above the struggle of two 
armies, or navies, as reason and moral right are above 
muscle and steel. Some delays consumed three months 



Oregon not in the treaty. 187 

among more local commissioners, and on questions of 
geography, compass, and chain. But, as men who are 
conscious of right, and of having the end in their own 
keeping, can afford to wait, so the high contracting par- 
ties waited, in this case, till the time was ripe, and the 
end came in an obvious fitness of things. The result 
in the Ashburton Treaty gained the general assent. 
Some Englishmen called the treaty the " Ashburton 
Capitulation," and some Americans spoke quite as nar- 
rowly of it from the United States side. 

There is no evidence that Doctor Whitman was dis- 
satisfied with the policy which resulted in the Ashbur- 
ton Treaty, as evidently the best possible in the circum- 
stances. Nor is there reliable information to warrant 
the assumption that he was annoyed by any opinions at- 
tributed to the Secretary that Oregon was " worthless 
territory," and should be traded off for cod - fisheries. 
All traditions to that effect have started in the assump- 
tion that on his arrival in Washington the Ashburton 
Treaty was still pending, whereas it had been settled for 
six months. But in a later chapter we will discuss this 
fully. 

The delay, therefore, constituted Whitman's oppor- 
tunity, and enabled him to turn his perilous journey into 
the salvation of his beloved northwest. If anyone could 
be intelligently thankful that the Oregon question had 
not been pressed into the treaty, that man must have 
been Marcus Whitman. 

Meanwhile the bow of Ulysses was relaxed. For the 
very day when the Senate ratified the treaty, thirty-nine 
to nine, we find Webster thus writing to his Marshfield 
farmer : " I am against filling the floor of the barn with 
salt hay. It spoils the looks of things, besides being in 



188 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

the way. You will do better to make a third cap, large, 
and place it in a convenient spot near the piggery, as I 
am not at all certain but what you and I shall make a 
barn the last two weeks in September and the first two 
in October." 

If Dr. Whitman could have created all the circum- 
stances and ordained his own time, his arrival in Wash- 
ington could not have been more apt for seizing the con- 
dition of things and saving Oregon. Its destiny he had 
brought over on his own saddle, and now held it in his 
solitary hand. His knowledge of the case was original, 
personal, and experimental, and at Washington he made 
it declarative. With his understanding of the whole 
affair, and with his practical sense and energy, he was 
anxious to venture the issue for Oregon on an experi- 
ment, and the Cabinet were willing he should do it. 
Fremont was promised as an escort for the returning 
caravan that was to constitute the experiment. The 
settlement, therefore, of the Oregon question, and the 
crowning of that wonderful ride, waited on that 'emi- 
grant cavalcade that was about to move off into the 
wild west from Westport, Missouri. 



CHAPTER XX. 

IS OREGON WORTH SAVING? 

When Dr. Whitman arrived in Washington it was a 
common question there, and so poorly understood as to 
be variously answered, whether Oregon were worth sav- 
ing. It was several months distant from our national 
capital, and had been but little examined and reported 
by Americans, and occupied by settlers only about 
twelve months. The information obtained from explor- 
ers, traders, and trappers from the United States had 
been slight, mostly indefinite, and not very tempting to 
emigration. The popular and prevailing impression 
was that Oregon was wild, rough, and inhospitable, and 
not inviting to immigrants and specially to family life. 
It was thought to be no place for white women and their 
children, nor even for business men in the ordinary pur- 
suits of agriculture, mechanics, trade, and commerce. 
Even if these things were otherwise, and the whole re- 
gion were tempting to American life, it was not accessi- 
ble by land ; and to double Cape Horn in a voyage of 
weary months was out of the question. Prior to the 
arrival of the Doctor this ignorance made it impos- 
sible to settle the question in dispute. The emigrant 
scheme contained the solution of doubts. 

Was Oregon worth having by the United States ? 
Doubtful, as the case then stood in evidence. Tlie 
northwest was opened and made known to the United 



190 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

States by the Hudson Bay Company, as it became in the 
course of their progressive trade the natural extension 
of their magnificent game preserve. Their policy, as a 
grand mercantile monopoly, was to keep it in their own 
hands. As already stated, that broad Scotchman and fur- 
trader, Alexander Mackenzie, had gone across — first of 
white men — to the northwest Pacific, and painted his 
mark there upon rock. Thus his discoveries by land 
closed in with those of Captain Cook by sea, made fif- 
teen years before, and the English arm was stretched 
across from sea to sea. A little later, 1806, Simon 
Frazer made a settlement on a river there, with his name. 
" The first made on the west of the Rocky Mountains 
by civilized man." ^ 

The publication of Cook's voyages, 1784-5, introduced 
many rival and adventurous traders into those north- 
western seas, and from that time the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany urged, energetically, their monopoly there, as we 
have before seen. The American purchase and the ex- 
ploration by Lewis and Clark were not followed by col- 
onies from the States for many years. The first inde- 
pendent emigrating party of men, women, and children 
— one hundred and twenty — to that country was led 
over in 1842 by Elijah White, Indian agent for the gov- 
ernment in the northwest. This was the company that 
informed Dr. Whitman of the negotiations for the Ash- 
burton Treaty, and hastened him on his ride.^ Prior to 
this a few missionary bands had gone over, but their in- 
formation was mostly concerning their work. The va- 

1 The Oregon Question Examined. By Travers Twiss, Professor of 
Political Economy, Oxford, 1846, p. 13. 

2 A Concise View of Oregon Territory. By Elijah White, Indian 
Agent for Oregon Territory, Washington, 1845, pp. 1, 65. 



IS OREGON WORTH SAVING? 191 

rious American trading parties had gained much knowl- 
edge of that country in the line of their business, but 
they were not accessible as an organized fraternity, and 
so could not impart much valuable information. No 
doubt a watchful reporter, hanging about St. Louis from 
the return of Lewis and Clark in 1806, to Whitman's 
arrival there in 1843, could have picked up many valu- 
able facts concerning that vast northwest. Old traders 
and trappers, and Mississippi boatmen of the Mike Fink 
stamp, a species long extinct, must have made many a 
saloon, and verandah, and shanty on Water Street and 
the Levee fascinating with their stories. The quarters 
of the American Fur Company must have been full of 
profitable information, but little literary ambition was 
there, and only financial facts went into their huge folios. 
We would sacrifice a portly alcove to-day for a few 
hours with such pioneer traders as the Sublettes, and 
Davenport, and Campbell, and the Bents, and Chouteau, 
and St. Vrain, and others. One may be pardoned for 
covetino: what those men carried with them to the srave. 
An incident, with headline only, may hint at our loss. 
About Christmas, 1830, William Sublette had cached 
his furs on the Bighorn River, and having joined the 
camp of his brother Milton, crossed over into the valley 
of Wind River to winter. When he had well quartered 
his men, he put out for St. Louis, with Black Har- 
ris, traveling on snow-shoes, with a train of pack dogs. 
What a story to be lost ! 

At the time of the interview between Whitman and 
Webster the most of the information received in the 
States from the northwest had of necessity, therefore, 
come in through English channels, and was moulded to 
Hudson Bay interests. While that country lay as an 



192 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

obscure right between the two nations, and the Com- 
pany saw an advance opening for their trade, it was 
quite natural that they should diminish temptations to 
visit it, and weave obstacles between it and a rival on 
the border. This they did to a successful extent up 
to the time when Whitman arrived on the Potomac. 
They had made it quite obvious to the uninformed, says 
Gray, " that the whole country was of little value to any 
one. It would scarcely support the few Indians, much 
less a large population of settlers." 

English volumes of travel and scholarly Review arti- 
cles were teaching the same delusion abroad. So the 
"Edinburgh Review" said: " Only a very small pro- 
portion of the land is capable of cultivation." " West 
of the Rocky Mountains the desert extends from the 
Mexican (Californian) border to the Columbia," and it 
endeavored to show that the country east of the moun- 
tains was " incapable, probably forever, of fixed settle- 
ments," where now are Kansas, Nebraska, and Dakota. 
The " British and Foreign Review " preached to the 
same application and conclusion : " Upon the whole, 
therefore, the Oregon territory holds out no great prom- 
ise as an agricultural field." The " London Examiner " 
was quite pronounced, if not petulant, that the ignorant 
Americans did not give up ^ country equal in area to 
England eight times : " The whole territory in dispute 
is not worth twenty thousand pounds to either power." ^ 

This worthless region, as they wished to show it, they 
nevertheless occupied eastward from the Pacific to the 
heads of the Missouri and Mississippi. When Lieutenant 

1 Vol. Ixxxii. p. 240. Also July, 1843, p. 184. Bintish and For- 
eign Review, Januaiy, 1844, p. 21. London Examiner, quoted in 
Webster's Works, i. : Introd. cxlix. 



IS OREGON WORTH SAVING? 193 

Pike, in his expedition of 1805, found the Hudson Bay 
Company flying the English flag within our territory, and 
required it to be hauled down, he wrote to Captain Mc- 
Gillis : " I find your establishments at every suitable place 
along the whole extent of the south side of Lake Super- 
ior, to its head, from thence to the sources of the Missis- 
sippi, down Red River, and even extending to the cen- 
tre of our newly acquired territory of Louisiana." 

Their trappers and traders, in a gossipy way, were 
undervaluing Oregon, as the stately quarterlies were 
doing in a more dignified manner. This depreciating 
view of that country came to possess our own literature 
and popular speech. Captain William Sturgis, who had 
traflficked on the northwest coast and at the English posts 
there, uses this language in a lecture before the Mercan- 
tile Library Association of Boston, two years even after 
the arrival of Whitman : " Rather than have new states 
formed beyond the Rocky Mountains, to be added to our 
present Union, it would be a lesser evil, as far as that 
Union is concerned, if the unoccupied portion of the 
Oregon territory should sink into Symmes' Hole, leaving 
the western base of those mountains and the borders of 
the Pacific Ocean one and the same." ^ 

A similar view of Oregon's value probably led Benton 
to make that remarkable utterance, in 1825 : " The ridge 
of the Rocky Mountains may be named without offence 
as presenting a convenient natural and everlasting bound- 
ary. Along the back of this ridge the western limits of 
this Republic should be drawn, and the statue of the fa- 
bled god Terminus should be raised upon its highest 
peak, never to be thrown down." As late as 1844 Mr. 
Winthrop, calling attention in the Senate to this senti- 
ment, remarked : " It was well said." 
1 Boston, 184^5, p. 24. 



194 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

The same article from which we have quoted in the 
" Edinburgh Review " thinks that the American colo- 
nists in Oregon have been '' misled by the representa- 
tions of the climate and soil of Oregon, which for party 
purposes have been spread through the United States." 
Then the " Review " becomes prophetic : " It seems prob- 
able that, in a few years, all that formerly gave life to 
the country, both the hunter and his prey, will become 
extinct, and that their place will be supplied by a thin 
white and half-breed population, scattered along the few 
fertile valleys, supported by pasture instead of the chase, 
and gradually degenerating into barbarism, far more of- 
fensive than the backwoodsman." This defamation of 
Oregon is naturally followed by the English writer with 
the declaration that " No nation now possesses any title, 
perfect or imperfect, by discovery, by settlement, by 
treaty, or by prescription." 

The Ashburton Treaty had been then ratified, Oregon 
was omitted, and the next step must be anticipated. P]vi- 
dently the " Review " was making and exporting opinions 
for American use, and forty years ago it was no inferior 
power in determining the affairs of this country. It is 
right to add, however, that twenty-four years afterward, 
the " Westminster Review " had the candor to confess : 
" In spite of the disparaging estimates of Mr. Edward 
Ellice and Sir George Simpson, and the unfavorable 
impression of the territory, which has been so industri- 
ously propagated by the Hudson Bay Company, we are 
compelled to believe, on overwhelming testimony, that 
the Fur Company possess, or claim to possess, a grand 
estate, larger than most kingdoms, and a great portion 
of it of unequalled natural resources." 

Mr. McDuffie, in a speech in the Senate, reflected, 



IS OREGON WORTH SAVING? 195 

rougWy and crudely, the English and Hudson Bay Com- 
pany's teachings on the subject : — 

" What is the character of this country ? Why, as I 
understand it, that seven hundred miles this side of the 
Rocky Mountains is uninhabitable, where rain scarcely 
ever falls — a barren and sandy soil . . . mountains 
totally impassable, except in certain parts, where there 
were gaps or depressions, to be reached only by going 
some hundreds of miles out of the direct course. Well, 
now, what are we going to do in such a case as this ? How 
are you going to apply steam ? Have you made any- 
thing like an estimate of the cost of a railroad running 
from here to the mouth of the Columbia ? Why the 
wealth of the Indies would be insufficient. You would 
have to tunnel through mountains five or six hundred 
miles in extent. ... Of what use will this be for agri- 
cultural purposes? I would not, for that purpose, give 
a pinch of snuff for the whole territory. ... I wish it 
was an impassable barrier to secure us against the intru- 
sion of others. ... If there was an embankment of 
even five feet to be removed, I would not consent to ex- 
pend five dollars to remove that embankment, to enable 
our population to go there. ... I thank God for his 
mere}'- in placing the Rocky Mountains there." 

This speech in the Senate was delivered on the 25th 
of January, 1843. An interesting coincidence comes 
in here. On the 7th of this month Whitman had left 
Bent's Fort for St. Louis and Washington ; on the 
13th had encountered that terrible and memorable " cold 
wave " of the interior, and in his lonely saddle was press- 
ing on to the States, with a bundle of facts that would 
reduce so many speeches, like that of McDuffie, and so 
many English Review articles, to deceptive rhetoric. 



196 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

Indeed, it was unfortunate for the American interests, 
that outside, foreign, and rival parties furnished the basis 
and tone of public opinion on the question. The Great 
American Desert was made a standing intimidation to 
the emigrant. " From the valley of the Mississippi to 
the Rocky Mountains, the United States territory," says 
the " Westminster Review," " consists of an arid tract 
extending south nearly to Texas, which has been called 
the Great American Desert." " The caravan of emi- 
grants who undertake the passage," says Mr. Edward J. 
Wallace, " take provisions for six months, and many of 
them die of starvation on the way." ^ 

That " Desert " still forms quite an African feature in 
the visions of some eastern people, who have read only 
" Pike's Expedition," and Long's, and Wilson P. Hunt's, 
and who remember faithfully Morse's and Cumming's 
geographies of their childhood. What a dreary Arabian 
centre that Great American Desert gave then to the 
map of the United States ! Missouri, and Kansas, and 
Nebraska, and Colorado, and Dakota, and other splendid 
farming regions are now good substitutes for that Zahara. 

But unfavorable impressions of the west, this side and 
beyond the mountains, were not due to the English 
alone. The east was jealous of the west, and conse- 
quently negligent of it. A question in McDuffie's speech 
is a hint of this. " Do you think your honest farmers in 
Pennsylvania, New York, or even Ohio or Missouri, 
would abandon their farms to go upon any such enter- 
prise as this ? " And Mr. Winthrop is appalled by the 
same desert. " Whether that spirit [of emigration], in- 
domitable as it is in an ordinary encounter, would not 

1 Edward J. Wallace, Barrister-at-Law. The Oregon Question Ex- 
amined, London, 1846, p. 29. 



IS OREGON WORTH SAVJNG? 197 

be found stumbling upon the dark mountains, or faint- 
ing in the dreary valleys, or quenched beneath the per- 
petual snows, which nature has opposed to the passage 
to this disputed territory, remains to be seen." In 
1846 this veteran statesman is still speaking of "a 
wagon-road eighteen hundred miles in length through 
an arid and mountainous region " to the shores of the 
Pacific. 

The fact is constantly meeting us, in this historical in- 
quiry concerning the origin, growth, and acquisition of 
our Oregon, that the vastness of our territory, the great 
distance of fascinating portions of it from the old east, 
and the long trails of our daring emigrants, made it ex- 
ceedingly difficult for the government to appreciate it 
and provide for it. 

The time is not far past when a tour to Illinois was 
more tedious and even dangerous than one to-day to 
China. Lieutenant Pike was not the only one who feared 
the ruin of the Republic by the thin diffusion of its pop- 
ulation by emigration.^ Similar lack of foresight and 
knowledge, and practical, though unconscious indiffer- 
ence to our magnificent western growth, was shown when 
efforts were made to withhold all public lands from sale 
and settlement after the Louisiana purchase, beyond the 
Mississippi, till wild lands east of that river were taken 
up. And it is not to be concealed that the east bore it 
ill that the old centres of wealth and voting and general 
control were going " out west." 

It is still difficult to persuade benevolent capitalists 
and benevolent organizations that tneir most hopeful 
fields are frontier fields. The handful of grain, whose 

1 Explorations on the Sources of the Mississippi, Missouri, Platte 
and Arkansas, 1806, Appendix II. 



198 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

fruit is to shake like LebaDon, is prairie corn, and Pa- 
cific wheat. The old fields east of the Ohio, and spe- 
cially east of the Hudson, have done raising these large 
crops of prophecy. The benevolence is reverent and 
filial and lovely that still decorates the old altars of re- 
ligion, and wreathes the monuments of the fathers, and 
adds new turrets and alcoves and elms to the classic 
shades and walks of our younger feet. But if, by and 
by, we would rest in shrines, to which the godly and 
the scholarly will make pilgrimage, and as reverently, 
and filially, and lovingly as we do now to those of the 
fathers, we must put our legacies, and sympathies, and 
labors, as they did, into a growing frontier, and make 
the wilderness bud and blossom. 

Prior to 1843 discussions on Oregon were not infre- 
quent in Congress, but no legislation was had anticipat- 
ing its settlement and protection. The first movement 
of this nature was in a resolution introduced into the 
House, in 1820, by Mr. Floyd of Virginia, but only de- 
bate followed. In 1843 a bill by Mr. Lewis of Mis- 
souri passed the Senate, making some legal provisions 
for Oregon, but it was lost in the House under an ad- 
verse report made by Mr. John Quincy Adams. In 
those times western enterprise, in the form of Fur Com- 
panies, did the most to compel attention to that neglected 
portion of our domain, notably, Ashley's, 1823, Jackson 
and Sublette's, 1827, Pattie's, 1830, Bonneville's, 1832, 
and some few others. 

But the Hudson Bay Company did all they could to 
bring failure upon these, and they were generally suc- 
cessful. Governor Pelley of that Company well says in 
1838 : " We have compelled the American adventurers 
to withdraw from tlie contest, and are now pressing the 



IS OREGON WORTH SAVING? 199 

Russian Fur Company so closely, that we hope, at no 
very distant period, to confine them to the trade of their 
own proper territory." The Hudson Bay Company 
finally leased from the Russians that long, narrow strip 
of Alaska between British Columbia and the ocean, in 
no place more than thirty miles wide. The rental paid 
was two thousand land otter skins a year. The Amer- 
ican adventurers generally returned to the States dissat- 
isfied, and they charged much to climate, long journeys, 
and desert regions, which was really due to the harsh 
monopoly of English rivals. 

All this tended to defame and depreciate Oregon ia 
the popular mind, and congressional delays and inef- 
ficient action were the natural consequence. Feeble 
and not very successful missionary efforts in 1834 and 
the years following kept a kind of life in the Oregon 
question, and, uniting with the trading interest, brought 
it down to the times of the Ashburton Treaty. To one 
who has traced these facts, it will not seem strange that 
it did not gain recognition in that treaty. It had not 
definiteness or vitality enough in the American mind, 
which lay in ignorance of its true merits, and it could 
not have been handled as a whole and with interna- 
tional equity. 

Indeed, when Dr. Whitman arrived many still held 
to the idea expressed, in his early career, by General 
Jackson to President Monroe : " Concentrate our popu- 
lation, confine our frontier to proper limits, until our 
country, in those limits, is filled with a dense popula- 
tion. It is the denseness of our population that gives 
strength and security to our frontier." 

We have noticed Mr. Benton's rhetorical erection of 
the god Terminus on the Rocky Mountains. In a speech 



200 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

made two years even after the arrival and the alarming 
information of Dr. Whitman, Mr. Winthrop said : " Are 
our western brethren straightened for elbow-room, or 
likely to be for a thousand years ? Have they not too 
much land for their own advantage already ? . . . I 
doubt whether the west has a particle of real interest in 
the possession of Oregon. . . . The west has no interest, 
the country has no interest, in extending our territorial 
possessions." Mr. Webster renews the declaration of 
General Jackson and Mr. Winthrop, when opposing, in 
1845, the admission of Texas : " 'J'he government is very 
likely to be endangered, in my opinion, by a further en- 
largement of the territorial surface, already so vast, over 
which it is extended." 

Another question, traditional from colonial times, was 
floating about Washington and affected the other, whether 
Oregon was worth having, when Dr. Whitman appeared. 
It was whether smaller domains and several independent 
governments were not preferable to one total and inclu- 
sive Union. When the colonies were feeling their way 
toward independence, newspapers, pamphlets, and con- 
ventions handled this question, and among other plans 
a northern and middle and southern confederation or 
separate government was proposed. Sectional feeling 
and separation were high. After independence and the 
Union were made sure, Washington discovered strong ten- 
dencies to a separate government in the southwest : " The 
western states hang upon a pivot. The touch of a feather 
would turn them any way." Jefferson carried along to- 
ward Whitman's day the colonial notion of separate gov- 
ernments for the Americans, and was therefore disap- 
pointed by the failure of the Astor colony and plan. " I 
considered as a great public acquisition," he wrote to Mr. 



IS OREGON WORTH SAVING? 201 

Astor after the failure, " the commencement Oi a settle- 
ment on that point of the western coast of America, and 
looked forwai'd with gratification to the time when its 
descendants should have spread themselves through the 
whole lensfth of that coast, coverino; it with free and in- 
dependent Americans, unconnected with us but by the ties 
of blood and interest, and enjoying, like us, the right of 
self-government." . . . "The germ of a great, free, 
and independent empire on that side of our continent." 

In 1829 an organization was formed in Boston to pro- 
mote the American occupation of Oregon, and it asked 
of Congress a colonial government, or an independent 
one, as that body might advise. 

The venerable Gallatin, in his very able letters on 
the Oregon question, remarks : " The inhabitants of the 
country, from whatever quarter they may have come, will 
be, of right, as well as in fact, the sole legitimate owners 
of Oregon. Whenever sufficiently numerous they will 
decide whether it suits them best to be an independent 
nation, or an integral part of our great Republic. . . . 
Viewed as an abstract proposition, Mr. Jefferson's opin- 
ion appears correct, that it will be best for both the 
Atlantic and the Pacific American nations, whilst enter- 
taining the most friendly relations, to remain independ- 
ent, rather than to be united under the same govern- 
ment." ^ 

Such were the antecedents and surroundings of the 
Oregon question when Dr. Whitman arrived in Wash- 
ington, and neither Oregon, nor Webster, nor Whitman 
can be made to stand in a true light if placed outside 
this historical framework. Without making an extensive 
study of the case, the special friends of Oregon have felt 

1 Letter V. 



202 OR/'JGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

tliat it was nt that time neglected, and some of the friends 
of Dr. Whitman have felt that his perilous mission did 
not gain a just attention in the office of the Secretary of 
State. The facts in the case, so far as discovered, do 
not show disappointment by the one or neglect by the 
other. The Doctor seems to have gained all he asked, 
and the Secretary to have kept at the very front of cir- 
cumstances ; and the result, which is the logical con- 
clusion of events, was the acquisition of Oregon to tlie 
full extent of any government claim by the United 
States. 

It is reported as a coincidence of weight that Sir 
George Simpson, Governor of the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany, visited Washington during the critical days we 
are now considering. Sir George had been the head of 
the Company in America for many years, and had been 
resident in the country much longer. Probably no liv- 
ing man could bring to the investigation of the question 
so nmch knowledge of the natural resources of Oregon 
and its value for some national domain. Certainly no 
one had a better understanding of the interests, plans, 
and secret policies of the Hudson Bay Company con- 
cerning that region. It was a coincidence, therefore, 
that Governor Simpson should start on an inland tour 
from Montreal to the heads and valley and mouth of 
the Columbia, make a double excursion up and down 
the Pacific coast, and survey carefully the Russian, 
English, American, and Mexican possessions there, 
while the Oregon interest was coming to the front. 
Without commission on the business, yet full of infor- 
mation, as no other man was, and then as fond of 
frontier life and forest sports as Webster himself, he 
could meet the Secretary of State informally and so- 



IS OREGON W OUT It SAVING? 203 

cially and frequently as a kind of untitled teie-a-tete plen- 
ipotentiary. For practical results, though uncommis- 
sioned, it was as when one is omitted or absent at the 
court dinner, but liniches privately wilJi tJie king. No 
doubt each used the opportunity informally, for Iiis gov- 
ernment, but for the English side it was like putting 
forward the best Hudson Bay expert, while the most of 
the evidence on the American side came by way of 
Great Britain. But with no correspondence between 
the two gentlemen extant, and no records of visits 
preserved, so far as appears, it would be quite unwise to 
base any assertions of things done or proposed, on con- 
jectures, inferences, traditions, and unadmitted reporters. 
Very likely the Governor, at those splendid dinners, 
said some things to the Secretary which he afterward 
published in his "Narrative of a Journey Round the 
World." In passing the bar at the mouth of the Co- 
lumbia he nervously describes the "spot already pre- 
eminent, among congenial terrors of much older fame, for 
destruction of property and loss of life." IIow could 
the United States wish to own that dangerous piece of 
property? But the English were willing to take it! 
He is confident " the United States will never possess 
more than a nominal jurisdiction, nor long possess even 
that, on the west side of the Rocky Mountains." He 
even challenges Congress to impose the Atlantic tariffs 
on the ports of the Pacific. And, giving full scope to 
England and Russia to control the destinies and dimen- 
sions of other peoples, he assumes to " confine every 
other nation within the scanty limits of its proper local- 
ity." Haughtily said by one who headed a land monop- 
oly one third larger than all Europe. But it does not 
read so frightful and dwarfing to us now, when the 



204 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

United States have land enough on which to set down 
all England seventy-eight times, with clippings that 
would comfortably seat Scotland, while we own six 
thousand miles of Pacific coast against the English four 
hundred and fifty. 

The Governor grows bold in his book prophecies : 
" San Francisco will, to a moral certainty, sooner or 
later fall into the possession of the Americans — the 
only possible mode of preventing such a result being the 
previous occupation of the post on the part of Great 
Britain. . . . The only doubt is whether California is 
to fall to the British or to the Americans." In 1839, 
Captain Sir Edward Belcher had surveyed the Califor- 
nia coasts to San Francisco and below, and the English 
government was informed, as if in anticipation, of the 
value and desirableness of that then almost Mexican 
waif. 

So the Governor is chatty, and prophetic, and diplo- 
matic, in his narrative of two volumes.-^ Whether he 
said these things, more or less, to Mr. Webster, in some 
most genial interviews, does not appear. But, indeed, 
it was a singular coincidence if Sir George Simpson, 
Governor of the Hudson Bay Company, was visiting in 
Washington just at that time. And it was another as 
singular coincidence, that at the same time Dr. Marcus 
Whitman should enter the office of the Secretary of State, 
and with wonderful intelligence be able to speak to the 
question : Is Oregon worth saving ? 

1 Narrative of a Journey Round the World. By Sir George 
Simpson, Governor-in-Chief of the Hudson Bay Company in Nortb 
A-merica. In 1841-1842. London, 1847. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

TITLES TO OREGON. 

The question of threescore years begins to show an 
end. The discussion, at home and abroad, is narrowing 
to an examination of titles, of discoveries, and settle- 
ments. At this later stage, therefore, in our study of 
the Oregon question, a statement of the respective claims 
of the two parties will not only be necessary, but it can 
now be made more briefly and intelligibly than it could 
have been at an earlier period. 

The extent of the original Oregon of controversy is 
worthy of careful thought. By common consent the 
forty-second degree of latitude was the boundary be- 
tween Oregon and California. The Pacific coast of 
Oregon ran from the forty-second degree to fifty-four 
forty, north. From that northern point on the coast it 
ran due east to the heights of the Rocky Mountains, and 
followed that divide down to the forty-second degree 
again. The territory so inclosed was the original, not 
the final, Oregon, extending about seven hundred and 
sixty miles north and south, by about six hundred and 
fifty east and west. This area is equal to Massachusetts 
sixty-three times, and to Great Britain and Ireland four 
times. 

In 1790, Spain claimed for herself, both from dis- 
covery and settlement, even farther north than this, and 
denied the right of any other nation to make establish- 



206 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

ments there. In this year Great Britain made issue 
with Spain on these assumptions, the result of which 
was the Nootka Convention, so called. It is not expe- 
dient to go here into details as to the claims of the two 
nations in that quarter of the world. They are absurd 
enough on either side, and after an illustration for each 
party, we will skip two hundred years and more, and 
come to results. 

When Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean, at the 
Isthmus, in 1513, he took possession of it for his king 
as a private sea ; and its navigation, trade, fisheries, and 
adjoining country, he vowed to defend for the king and 
crown of Spain. A half century or so later, 15*79, Sir 
Francis Drake, buccaneer, filibuster, and marauder- 
general — honorable and honored in the times and court 
of Elizabeth — accepted for his queen, and from the 
natives of that northwest coast, coronation, sceptre, and 
sovereignty. The poor creatures, scantily clothed in a 
few skins besides their own, went through the ceremo- 
nial farce ; and the pillar that the admiral erected in 
commemoration of this transfer of dominion to his queen 
was a monument of folly. The two absurdities are well 
matched together by the Spaniard and the Englishman. 

On occasional visits by vessels, temporary trade with 
the natives, some fishing, and a few shanties, the two 
rival nations built claims to sovereignty. The English 
claimed "an indisputable right to the enjoyment of a 
free and uninterrupted navigation, commerce, and fishing, 
and to the possession of such establishments as they 
should form, with the consent of the natives of the 
country, not previously occupied by any of the Euro- 
pean nations." While doing this, the English vessels 
and property were seized and confiscated by the Spanish. 



TITLES TO OREGON, 207 

Hence negotiations opened that resulted in the Nootka 
Convention of 1790. 

By this convention or treaty Great Britain gained the 
right to navigate, trade, and fish, on the northwest 
coast, and make temporary settlements for these pur- 
poses. Spain conceded only this, and retained her sov- 
ereignty or right of eminent domain over the coasts, 
islands, and land inward. The times in Europe were 
then anxious ; revolutions threatened, and the era of 
Napoleon was just opening ; the ministry of Pitt eased 
off from its hard demands on Spain, and the secret and 
adroit management of Mirabeau made the negotiations 
almost or quite barren for the old rival of France. The 
convention does not show that Spain conceded any of the 
sovereignty which she claimed over the land. The con- 
ference and the treaty were commercial and not terri- 
torial. England sought a division of the territory, but it 
was not gained. While the English could not " navigate 
or carry on their fishing in the said seas within the space 
of ten leagues from any part of the coast occupied by 
Spain," the settlements where the English could trade 
were made common to Spain also. Indeed when the 
convention was discussed in Parliament it was asserted 
that England had lost more than she had gained, while 
Spain was left unrestricted and unmolested in her old 
assumptions and assertions of sovereignty. I dwell 
the more minutely on this treaty, because afterward the 
United States became full owner, by purchase, of all that 
Spain owned, and had left to herself, by the Nootka ar- 
rangement, of the country north of the forty-second 
degree. 

It should here be added that the war between Eng- 
land and Spain in 1796 abrogated this treaty, according 



208 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

to the common theory, as stated by Lord Bathurst, 
" that all treaties are put an end to by a subsequent 
war between the same parties." This would carry back 
the extent of the gain of the United States by the 
Louisiana purchase to all that Spain owned north of 
forty-two prior to the Nootka Convention. 

Spain and Great Britain entered into a new commer- 
cial treaty in 1814, in which the Nootka Treaty was re- 
affirmed. This was a practical concession by England to 
Spain of all the territorial sovereignty which Spain had 
claimed on the northwest coast, north of the parallel of 
forty-two. In order to understand with definiteness the 
American claim to Oregon by the Louisiana Purchase, 
several particulars should be here carefully noted. 
Prior to the Nootka Convention Spain claimed the 
sovereignty of the Oregon coasts. As the Nootka Con- 
vention makes no reference to this claim, it is silently 
conceded to Spain. In 1796 that convention is abro- 
gated by war between the two parties, and Spain is re- 
instated in all her ancient claims, commercial and terri- 
torial. In this condition of things Spain reconyeys to 
France the ancient Louisiana, which was assumed to 
embrace the Oregon territory, and soon after France 
conveyed it to the United States by the same limits by 
which she had received it from Spain. In 1814, Great 
Britain reaffirms the Nootka Treaty, and so renews the 
concession to Spain of her territorial claims on that coast. 
It would appear, therefore, that the United States de- 
rived from Spain through France a title to Oregon 
which, as late as 1814, Great Britain had conceded. 
When we come to examine the Florida Treaty we shall 
see how this Spanish title is confirmed and supplemented 
for the United States.. 



TITLES TO OREGON, 209 

Some good authorities, even Bancroft, have expressed 
doubts whether the northern boundary of the ancient 
Louisiana was fixed west of the Lake of the Woods and 
on the forty-ninth parallel, and if not, whether any ter- 
ritory west of the mountains was conveyed back and 
forth as we have stated. The Treaty of Utrecht, 1713, 
provided for determining " the limits which are to be 
fixed between the said Bay of Hudson and the places ap- 
pertaining to the French." ^ Mr. Madison says : " There 
is reason to believe that the boundary between Louis- 
iana and the British territories north of it was actually 
fixed by commissioners appointed under the Treaty of 
Utrecht, and that the boundary was to run from the 
Lake of the Woods westwardly on latitude forty-nine ; " 
and he says the boundary was run " along that line in- 
definitely." Mr. Monroe, United States minister to 
England, writes, 1804, to Lord Harrowby, the British 
Secretary of Foreign Affairs : " Commissioners were 
appointed by each power, who executed the stipulations 
of the treaty in establishing the boundary proposed by 
it. They fixed the northern boundary of Canada and 
Louisiana," etc.^ Mr. Greenhow in his " History of 
Oregon," expresses doubts of this, however, and sets 
them forth in an elaborate note. 

The obscurity of this fact would be unfortunate, since 
the territory so defined on its north and west was ceded 
by France to Spain in 1762, and by Spain to France in 
1800, and by France to the United States in 1803. But 
a late and highest authority, the honorable Caleb Cush- 
ing, in " The Treaty of Washington," says : " The paral- 

1 Treaty of Utrecht, art. 10. 

2 American State Papers, Foreign Affairs, vol. iii. p. 90. See, also, 
Message of President Jefferson, with documents, March 30, 1808. 

14 



210 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

lei of forty-nine degrees was established between France 
and Great Britain by the Treaty of Utrecht."^ 

The conclusion seems warranted, therefore, that when 
France, in 1762, conveyed secretly to Spain all her 
possessions west of the Mississippi, she conveyed up 
north and out west on this line between her and Great 
Britain, according to the Treaty of Utrecht, — the 49 th 
parallel. On this same northern and westward line 
Spain reconveyed this identical territory to France in 
1800, and in 1803 France sold the same in both area 
and boundaries to the United States. 

The hasty reader would think that he here finds an 
original and continued title to the Oregon, vested in 
Spain. While there are negotiations about the terri- 
tory, they pertain to tenancy and not to ownership. 
Touching the latter Spain is constantly sensitive, prior 
to the Nootka Convention, and down to her final trans- 
fer of the region to France, keeping the ownership in 
her own hands by the assertion of her claim. She lin- 
gered over that ownership with a wonderful tenacity. 
For after she had reconveyed the territory to France in 
1800, she was indignant that France sold it to the 
United States, and delayed to pass the papers of sale, 
and entered protest against it, in informal ways. 

Both France and the United States grew anxious over 
the delay, and the latter was quieted by the assurance 
of Napoleon that he guaranteed the cession. But the 
conveyance was made embarrassing, and the formal 
transfer of territory and sovereignty at New Orleans, 
by France, to the United States, December 20, 1803, 
was not free from anxiety. The Spanish had formally 
transferred the territory to France only twenty days 

1 The Treaty of Washington. By Caleb Gushing, 1873, p. 208. 



TITLES TO OREGON. 211 

before, and the officials on both sides had fears that the 
old Spanish populace, with the French mere or less 
consenting, would make a popular demonstration. How- 
ever, the august occasion passed in quiet. 

The national spirit, more than the letter of any treat- 
ies with England, showed that Spain constantly affirmed 
her title on the northwest up to 54° 40'. Up to the 
forty-ninth she conveyed the same back to France, and 
so France to the United States. If she had any rem- 
nant there after this, it was conveyed to the United 
States by the Florida Treaty of 1819, which conveyed 
all hers, north of forty-two, to the United States. 

Note. It is a question unsettled whether the Louisiana Pur- 
chase extended beyond the Rocky Mountains, and the author has 
so left it in chapters xxi., xxii. To aid the studious a few author- 
ities on both sides are here cited. On the opinion of extension 
to the Pacific: Madison, Am. State Papers, Foreign Affairs, iii. 
90 ; Monroe, Ibid. iii. 9 ; Gallatin, Counter Statement to the Eng. 
Statement, 1826-27 ; Cushing's Treaty of Washington, chap, 
iv, ; U. S. Claim by Purchase pervading the Oregon Controversy ; 
Public Domain, Text and Maps, by Thomas Donaldson, by or- 
der of Congress and Official, Washington, 1884; Greenhow, if 
Monroe be accepted ; Hist. Oregon and Cal., chap. xiii. 

Per Contra. The English authors, Twiss, Falconer, and Dunn. 
Jefferson, Greenhow, Rush, Gallatin, and Buchanan are quoted 
by some, since they claim the title of the United States to Ore- 
gon "sufficient" without the claim by purchase. Much, if 
not the whole, depends on the statement of Monroe; and an 
examination of the English or French archives of 1712, 1713, 
and 1714, on the Execution of the Treaty of Utrecht, would 
probably close the discussion. Art. X. required that a joint Eng- 
lish and French Commission should, within a year, establish the 
boundary westward between Canada and Louisiana. Monroe 
says they did this, going west till they came to latitude 49°, " and 
along that line indefinitely." That the grant of Louis XIV. to 
Crozat in 1712 was not coterminous with the French grant to 
Spain, 1762, see Gallatin's Counter Statement. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE CLAIMS OP THE UNITED STATES TO OKEGON. 

The claims of the United States to Oregon, as the 
question drew its slow length along through threescore 
years, became a tedious, and perplexing, and annoying 
topic. In few cases has diplomacy showed better its 
ability not to do a thing, than in the settlement of the 
Oregon question. Yet, now that it is settled, the salient 
points stand out with singular simplicity and strength. 
It is not surprising that the extent of domain and the 
vast natural values in the territory in dispute should 
stimulate great national desire, and draw into the case 
all the misty indefiniteness of the laws of nations, so 
called, and all the finesse of astute negotiation. It must 
be confessed, too, that the affair had some inherent dif- 
ficulties. Few men of state in the generation of noble 
ones then on the stage were better fitted to handle this 
question and speak of it than Albert Gallatin, and in 
one of his most helpful letters on it he says : " It is 
morally impossible for the bulk of the people of any 
country thoroughly to investigate a subject so complex 
as that of the respective claims of the Oregon ter- 
ritory." 

A tract of country four times as large as Great Brit- 
ain and Ireland, already half in the grasp and within 
the possible monopoly of a government whose realm 
lies scattered around the world, could not but interest 



UNITED STATES' CLAIM TO OREGON. 213 

intensely that government. A territory that would make 
sixty-three states as large as Massachusetts, and natu- 
rally quite as inviting to human homes as that ancient 
domain was in its primitive state, could not be aban- 
doned by the United States in the ffice of four separate 
and independent titles to it, till each had been shown 
to be worthless. Of course it was or should be a ques- 
tion of right and not of power, though several times it 
came near to a vindication of the right by artillery and 
bayonet, i 

A few passages will serve to state the substance of the 
grounds on which the United States claimed Oregon. 

1. By prior discovery. As the new world was a nov- 
elty to the old, so sectional discoveries in it by different 
nations introduced into the law of nations novel rights 
and laws concerning newly discovered lands. By gene- 
ral consent the discovery of the St. Lawrence gave the 
basin of that river to the French, and that of the Hud- 
son to the Dutch, and of the Potomac to the English, 
while the coasts and basins of New Spain fell in the 
same way to Old Spain. On the same general princi- 
ples and usages the United States claimed the country 
drained by the Columbia, since that river had been dis- 
covered and explored by Captain Robert Gray, of the 
ship Columbia, of Boston, in 1792. 

Suspicions of such a river had been abroad, and the 
Spanish and English had carefully examined the coast 
for the mouths of large streams, and some had come nigh 
to making the discovery, as Meares and Vancouver. The 
former was led on by old Spanish charts which laid down 
such a river ifnder the name of the St. Roque. Meares 
failed to find the mouth of the supposed river, where he 
was led to explore for it in the Straits of Fuca, and made 

1 The territory finally conceded was equal to thirty-two states lik« 
Massachusetts. 



214 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

permanent record of his failure in the two titles he left 
there — Cape Disappointment and Deception Bay. In 
SI similar search Vancouver passed the mouth of the 
Columbia, and noticed " river-colored water — the prob- 
able consequence of some streams falling into the bay. 
. . . Not considering their opening worthy of more at- 
tention, I continued our pursuit to the northwest," 
being satisfied that " the several large rivers and capa- 
cious inlets that have been described as discharging 
their contents into the Pacific, between the fortieth anvl 
forty-eighth degrees of latitude, were reduced to brooks 
insufficient for our vessels to navigate, or to bays inac- 
cessible as harbors for refitting." 

Vancouver scrutinized that coast for about two hun» 
dred and fifty miles, and so minutely, he says, " that the 
surf has been constantly seen from the masthead to 
break on its shores." Thus he failed to discover the 
mouth of the Columbia, mistaking the breakers on its 
fearful bars for coast surf. This entry was made in his 
journal April 29, 1792. 

It is a striking coincidence that in the afternoon of the 
same day Captain Gray of the Columbia fell in with 
Vancouver, in the Strait of Fuca, north of the river in 
question, and informed him that he had very recently 
been off the mouth of a river in latitude forty-six ten, 
" where the outset or reflux was so strong as to prevent 
his entering for nine days." " This was probably the 
opening," continues Vancouver, " passed by us on the 
forenoon of the 27th, and was apparently inacces- 
sible, not from the current, but from the breakers that 
extended across it." The two captains parted — the Eng- 
lishman going north and the American south, on their 
discoveries. 



UNITED STATES' CLAIM TO OREGON. 215 

Thirteen days afterward, May 11th, Gray rediscov- 
ered the mouth of the river, and ran in under full sail 
between the breakers — Vancouver's " surf." He an- 
chored ten miles up from the mouth, spent three days 
in trade and in filling the water casks, and then ran up 
fifteen miles farther and anchored. After spending nine 
days in the river, he left it, giving to it the name of his 
ship. 

The British statement of the Oregon case, filed in for 
the sixth Conference, in 1826-27, admits that Gray dis- 
covered the Columbia. " It must, indeed, be admitted that 
Mr. Gray, finding himself in the bay formed by the dis- 
charge of the waters of the Columbia into the Pacific, 
was the first to ascertain that this bay formed the outlet 
of a great river." Yet, singularly, they call this a " sin- 
gle step in the progress of discovery," and would com- 
pel the American captain to share the honors with his 
English successors, who afterward went farther up the 
river England is brought in for a large share of honors 
and claims, because Vancouver went up afterward a hun- 
dred miles farther than Gray went at first. And he did 
this only after Gray met him the second time and in- 
formed him of his discovery of the Columbia, and where 
he would find it. Without this information Vancouver 
would not have renewed his search ; and as it was, he 
simply sent his lieutenant to take soundings and bearings 
farther up stream, under the information of the captain 
of the Columbia. This is the English " discovery " of 
the Columbia River ! 

Thus the discovery of a river is made a progressive 
work by English claimants, as if one could discover the 
Mississippi at New Orleans, and another at Memphis, 
another at Cairo, another at the mouth of the Missouri, 



216 OREGON: TEE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

and so on to the Falls of St. Anthony. As if the dis- 
covery of a lost cable were progressive, as the separate 
links in the chain are hauled on board. If this had not 
been said by " plenipotentiaries " we should call it puer- 
ile. Yet even Professor Twiss of Oxford, in an elabor- 
ate discussion of the Oregon question, says : " Captain 
Gray's claim is limited to the mouth of the Columbiaa" 
A few years afterward Lewis and Clark struck its head 
waters in the Rocky Mountains and followed them to 
the mouth, and so its discovery, outlet and sources, were 
American. By the usage of those times, which was the 
law of nations, so called, that discovery of a large river 
on an unexplored coast by an American citizen gave its 
basin to the United States. 

2. By the Louisiana Purchase. This constituted an 
important point in the claims of the United States to 
Oregon. We have already noticed that in 1762 France 
ceded to Spain all her territory west of the Mississippi, 
that Spain returned it in 1800, and that France sold the 
same to the United States in 1803, " with all its rights 
and appurtenances," says the treaty, "as fully, and in 
the same manner, as they have been acquired by the 
French Republic." We have also seen that the northern 
boundary of this Louisiana province was the forty-ninth 
parallel, running westwardly " along that line indefi- 
nitely." As this northern boundary is not said, in any 
specific words of the negotiations or treaty of sale and 
purchase, to be extended to the Pacific, but only in that 
direction " indefinitely," there is room for a doubt how 
far west the Louisiana extended on that parallel. 

If, however, the claims of France failed to reach the 
Pacific on that line, it must have been because they en- 
countered the old claims of Spain, that preceded tho 



UNITED STATES' CLAIMS TO OREGON. 217 

Nootka Treaty, and were tacitly conceded at that time 
and in it by England. Between the French claims on 
the south of that line prior to the transfer of 1762, and 
the Spanish claims prior to the Nootka Treaty, and the 
re-transfer to France in 1800, there was no unclaimed 
territory on which England could base a claim. If the 
United States did not acquire through to the Pacific on 
the south of that parallel of forty-nine by the Louisiana 
Purchase, it was because Spain was owner there prior 
to the first and second and third Louisiana transfers. 
The English were not there by discovery to encounter a 
United States extension, by the purchase, to the Pacific, 
for the United States had preceded the English in dis- 
covery; they were not there by concession from the 
Spanish, for the Spanish refused the claim and England 
did not reaffirm it, either in 1790 or 1814 ; they were 
not there by occupation, for they had no settlements. 

If, therefore, the United States failed to gain the Pa- 
cific coast in that purchase it was because Spain had not 
relinquished her rights there. This point will receive a 
separate consideration at the close of this chapter on the 
United States claims to Oregon. 

3. By prior explorations. The purchase of the Louis- 
iana by the United States was known at once among the 
nations. Immediately, and openly, under their full 
view, and as if with full right to go and examine a piece 
of newly purchased property, the United States sent 
Lewis and Clark to explore this grand addition to the 
Union. The expedition consisted of the joint command- 
ers, nine young Kentuckians, fourteen United States 
soldiers, two Canadian voyageurs, and one negro, the 
body servant of Captain Clark, — twenty-eight persons. 
It spent the winter of 1803-4 in camp on the Mississippi, 



218 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

at the mouth of Wood River, just below Alton, and op- 
posite the mouths of the Missouri, They broke camp 
May 14, 1804, and made the round trip to the Pacific 
and back in two years, four months, and nine days — 
saluting St. Louis, and receiving a most hearty and noisy 
welcome from that polyglot village, September 23, 1806, 
at noon. 

This was no private enterprise, as of scientific men or 
Indian traders. Hearne had explored his way to the 
Arctic, and Mackenzie to the Pacific, in the interests of 
a corporation, the Hudson Bay Company, for commer- 
cial gain ; but this was a government enterprise, and 
confessedly for government ends. The official explora- 
tion of the property, recently and notably purchased, was 
not followed by any objection or warning from any party 
once or still in interest on the northwest coast, as the 
Russians, Spanish, French, or English. This is the 
more noteworthy, since there were national ambitions 
and sensitiveness over the ownership of those vast re- 
gions presumed to be embraced in the Louisiana. 

The Spanish tone of that day is illustrative. Lewis 
and Clark had proposed to run up the Missouri to La 
Charrette, a frontier settlement, and spend their first 
winter there ; but the governor of this upper prov- 
ince of Louisiana forbade their entering the territory, 
since he had received no official notice of its transfer. 
When sixteen days up the Missouri the following spring 
they learned that the letter, announcing there the sale of 
the territory, was burned publicly in indignation. 

England was never behind Spain in her ambition and 
technical pleas for territory, as India, and China, and 
the Belize, and Afghanistan, the Zululand, and the 
Transvaal, and Egypt, will show. Yet the assumption 



UNITED STATES' CLAIMS TO OREGON. 219 

by the United States in this expedition that Oregon had 
been purchased by her was not questioned by Great 
Britain. 

Resting on the exploration, the government, from 
time to time, farther assumed the ownership by Con- 
gressional bills and discussions and enactments ; and the 
people followed this up with private companies, organized 
for trade within the territory. So it came to pass that 
the entire region from the head waters of the Columbia 
and its affluents, and, to an extent, those of the Sacra- 
mento and Fraser's rivers, was explored by enterprising 
Americans, as on their own soil. What Pike and Long 
did in the eastern sections of the purchase, Lewis and 
Clark, and Fremont and Whitman and Parker accom- 
plished in and beyond the mountains. 

4. By prior settlements. We distinguish here between 
the occupation and the settlement of a country. Hud- 
son Bay traders and trappers occupied Oregon for peltry 
and furs, and thereby gained the rights of hunters. 
Such pursuits and rights are the same as those of the 
native Lidians. It is claimed that the interests of civi- 
lization cannot leave vast tracts of wild country to the 
Indians, for a game life. But this English company 
used and were usurping the country in question for no 
broader purpose, only that they procured a surplus of 
hunter spoils, and put it on the market of the world. 
They did not increase the natural productions of the 
country, they did not propose settlements that imply a 
family and a plow and water-wheel. 

The first corporation and colony to contemplate set- 
tlements was Astor's. His project, as his correspondence 
with government through Jefferson shows, anticipated 
civil society, and government favored his plans, as com- 



220 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

prehending civilization on the northwest coast, and bind- 
ing over the territory to the Union by settlements. That 
Astor took possession of American domain, and had pos- 
sessions in the land that were national, is evident from 
the fact that after the war of 1812 and the English cap- 
ture of Astoria, it was restored to the United States, by 
treaty, which stipulated the restoration of " all territory^ 
places, and possessions whatever, taken by either party 
from the other during the war." In the restoration the 
Eoglish official calls it " the settlement." This was the 
first made by white men in the valley of the Columbia, 
and establishes the claim of the United States there by 
prior settlement. 

Following the restoration of Astoria in 1818, which 
was the first germ of civilization planted on that coast 
in 1811, there came at length the family and the white 
man's frame house, the plow and seed wheat and the gar- 
den, the saw and grain mill and printing-press. These 
were the first ripples of that coming human tide of civil- 
ized life that now flows and ebbs so splendidly on those 
far-off shores. Domestic animals crowded off the wild 
ones, and the pursuits of the chase gave place to the in- 
dustries that have there made a noble people. 

In almost every instance where the labors and arts of 
society broke up the wild life of the trapper and trader 
and factor, the innovation and elevation came from the 
United States. It is not necessary to itemize, for all 
histories, sketches, and travels touching primitive times 
and the dawn of civilization in that country, came in the 
line of its discovery and purchase and exploration by 
the United States. 

Concerning the claims of Spain on the northwest coast, 
and the effect of the Nootka Treaty of 1790 on them, an 



UNITED STATES' CLAIMS TO OREGON. 221 

additional remark should here be made. That treaty 
made stipulations concerning navigation and commerce, 
and left a right common to Great Britain and Spain to 
occupy the country temporarily for trade. But rights of 
sovereignty and jurisdiction were not conveyed by the lat- 
ter to the former. The question of sovereignty was ex- 
pressly kept in abeyance. However arrogant, therefore, 
the claims of Spain were to sovereignty over the territory 
of Oregon before the Nootka Convention, they were not 
yielded or abridged by it, and it was admitted in Parlia- 
ment that England lost rather than gained by the new 
arrangement. 

The whole treaty was abrogated by the war which 
soon followed between the parties; and afterward, 1814, 
only the commercial articles in it were renewed. The 
territorial claims of the parties to Oregon were, there- 
fore, never adjusted between them, and the ancient as- 
sumptions of Spain were still in force when the United 
States purchased Louisiana in 1803, and made the Flor- 
ida Treaty with Spain in 1819. In this Florida Treaty 
is a clause very significant to the interests of the United 
States. By the Treaty of Utrecht, 1713, between the 
English and the French, Mr. Madison says : " There is 
reason to believe that the boundary between Louisiana 
and the British territories north of it was actually fixed 
by commissioners appointed under the treaty, and that 
the boundary was to run from the Lake of the Woods 
westwardly on latitude forty-nine," and he says it was 
run " along that line indefinitely." 

When France conveyed the Louisiana to Spain in 1762 
she conveyed up to and along this line westward. It 
is a common historical conviction that she conveyed west- 
ward to the Pacific ou that parallel of forty-nine. If 



222 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

she did not, it must have been because, over the moun^ 
tains, she encountered the more ancient Spanish claims. 
Be it either way, after the conveyance, Spain ov^ned 
westward from the Mississippi along the parallel of forty- 
nine and south of it to the Pacific. 

When Spain reconveyed the same to France it was, 
in the language of the third article of the treaty, " the 
colony or provinces of Louisiana, with the same extent 
which it now has in the hands of Spain, and which it had 
when France possessed it, and such as it should be, ac- 
cording to the treaties subsequently made between Spain 
and other states." IVow as Spain, in the Nootka Treaty, 
had not alienated any of this territory, and as she had 
made in the interval no other treaty by which she could, 
she retroceded to France all which she had received 
from her. That was westward to the Pacific, or to her 
possessions on the Pacific, be the fact of possession as it 
may. If, therefore, after the United States had made 
the Louisiana Purchase, she did not own through on the 
forty-ninth parallel to the Pacific, it must have been be-- 
cause Spain owned the Oregon prior to the Treaty of 
Utrecht, 1713, did not acquire it from France in 1762, 
and could not retrocede it to France, so as to become 
a part of the Louisiana Purchase by the United States. 
It is, therefore, pertinent to remark that when Lewis 
and Clark explored Oregon, they explored either 
United States or Spanish territory. 

From that date till 1819 Spain made no changes of 
ownership, sovereignty, and jurisdiction touching Oregon. 
And now come the important concessions by Spain to 
the United States in the Florida Treaty of 1819. 

After marking the boundary line between the two 
countries west of the Mississippi, beginning at the mouth 
of the Sabine in the Gulf of Mexico, and running vari- 



UNITED STATES' CLAIMS TO OREGON. 223 

ously north and west till it reaches the Pacific on lati- 
tude forty-two, the third article in the treaty sa,ys : " His 
Catholic majesty cedes to the United States all his rights, 
claims, and pretensions to any territories east and north 
of the said line ; and for himself, his heirs and successors, 
renounces all claims to the said territories forever." 
This made the United States the owner, in the place of 
Spain, of all the territorial right of the latter in the 
northwest, north of the present southern boundary of 
Oregon. The value of that concession, by the law of 
nations, must be estimated by the facts now given. 

The validity and strength of the claims of the United 
States to the Oregon, as discoverer, purchaser, explorer, 
settler, and as successor to Spain, were realized, and to an 
extent conceded, by Great Britain. During negotiations 
in 1826-27 her plenipotentiaries said formally what Eng- 
land usually said from first to last : " Great Britain 
claims no exclusive sovereignty over any portion of that 
territory. Her present claim, not in respect to any 
part, but to the whole, is limited to a right of joint oc- 
cupancy, in common with other states, leaving the right 
of exclusive dominion in abeyance." In view of the 
facts given, this confession approximates a quit-claim. 

Therefore, in the matter of the American claim to 
Oregon below forty-nine, two things may be said in con- 
cluding the investigation of titles to it. First, that the 
United States obtained it in the Louisiana Purchase. 
Second, if any portion of it was not thus conveyed, be- 
ing retained in the rights of Spain, then Spain conveyed 
it in 1819 in the words of the Florida Treaty: "His 
Catholic majesty cedes to the United States all his rights, 
claijus, and pretensions to any territories east and north 
of the said line," — the forty-second parallel of latitude 
ou' the Oregon coasts. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

HISTORY VINDICATED. 

There has been an impression that Mr. Webster failed 
to grasp the Oregon case, slighted the American inter- 
est, and would have compromised our rights, if Presi- 
dent Tyler had not interposed to delay negotiations. 
There is no doubt that Mr. Webster viewed the case 
much through the English medium. No doubt the Hud- 
son Bay Company had been long and carefully prei3aring 
testimony in public opinion to carry the settlement in 
their favor. It would not be strange if Webster shared 
the views and feelings of the statesmen and other public 
men of the day on the general question. The East has 
always been conservative and sometimes unfortunately 
and painfully laggard concerning the extent and growth 
and worth and hastening power of the West. In mat- 
ters of education and religion in the West, as affecting 
vitally the future of the Republic, shortsightedness is yet 
far from being cured. Yet the partisans of Oregon must 
not think that the great statesman held the Pacific coast 
of no account because he would not adopt the motto : 
"Fifty-four Forty, or Fight." In 1845, and before the 
Oregon struggle was ended, he wrote to his son Fletcher : 
"You know my opinion to have been, and it now is, 
that the port of San Francisco would be twenty times 
as valuable to us as all Texas." The Secretary enter- 
tained no extreme views either way concerning the titles 



HISTORY VINDICATED, 225 

and final possession of Oregon, nor does it appear that 
there was ever any radical change in his views. The 
settlement was finally made on the boundary and terms 
which he proposed, after his interviews with Whitman, 
and the country was satisfied with the result. Indeed, in 
1839, four years before, when some spoke of Mr. Webster 
as special envoy to England to settle the northeastern 
boundary, he drew up a memorandum of plan for settle- 
ment for the use of Mr. Van Buren's cabinet. In his life 
of Webster Mr. Curtis says : " The germs of the nego- 
tiation, which afterward led to the Treaty of Washington 
[Ashburton's] were contained in this memorandum." 
Through that ardent Oregon era he showed the interest 
of a patriot and the wisdom of a statesman. , His state 
of mind, always predisposed that way, needed both the 
information and the plan which Whitman took to his 
office, and his course afterward showed that he used the 
one and adopted the other. In a letter the next year to 
Mr. Everett, our minister to England, Mr. Webster, 
says : " The ownership of the whole country is very 
likely to follow the greater settlement, and larger amount 
of population " — the great idea which Whitman brought 
to him over the mountains. 

He gave full credit to Dr. Whitman for all this, in a 
remark to a legal gentleman and personal friend : " It 
is safe to assert that our country owes it to Dr. Whit- 
man and his associate missionaries that all the territory 
west of the Rocky Mountains and south as far as the Col- 
umbia River, is not now owned by England and held by 
the Hudson Bay Company." 

When President Tyler communicated the Ashburton 
Treaty to the Senate, in August, 1842, he said that they 
found, early in the general negotiations, that there was 
15 



226 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

little probability of agreeing then on the Oregon part of 
the boundary, and it therefore seemed best to omit it from 
the treaty. In his annual message in December following, 
he again says that a failure to agree on the Oregon ques- 
tion would have probably carried with it a failure of the 
entire treaty, and so Oregon was left out. He then 
adds : " I shall not delay to urge on Great Britain the ' 
importance of its early settlement." And closely fol- 
lowing the proclamation of the Ashburton Treaty Mr. 
Webster wrote to our minister at St. James to urge the 
settlement. What he said afterward, with emphasis, and 
for both nations to hear, he was ready to say, early as 
well as late, in this long discussion : " The government 
of the United States has never offered any line south of 
forty-nine, and it never will. It behooves all concerned 
to regard this as a settled point. . . . England must not 
expect anything south of the forty-ninth degree." 

No doubt Dr. Whitman, on his arrival in Washington, 
received and appreciated all these facts. Oregon had 
not been included in the Ashburton Treaty, because the 
times were not ripe for it, and he was wanted to furnish 
the needed information, and open an easy trail to the Pa- 
cific. In judging whether Mr. Webster was peculiarly 
lacking in interest for Oregon at that interview, the tone 
of the times should be considered. When the Doctor 
arrived the omissions of the Ashburton Treaty had been 
under elaborate discussion in Congress. Linn's resolu- 
tion, calling for information on the omission of Oregon 
had prolonged the debates, and then a bill for the oc- 
cupation and settlement of Oregon, had been rejected 
in the House only fifteen days before his arrival. The 
times, not the Secretary, deferred action, and Oregon 
was waiting for Whitman at Washington, instead of 



HISTORY VINDICATED. 227 

being delayed and half declined by the indifference of 
Webster. 

Some remarks made in the Senate in August, 1842, 
by Mr. Calhoun, in this discussion on the omissions of 
the Ashburton Treaty, are pertinent in this place: 
" Would it be wise to reject the treaty because all has 
not been done that could be desired ? He placed a high 
value on our territory on the west of those mountains, 
and held our title to be clear, but he would regard it as 
an act of consummate folly to stake our claim on a trial 
of strength at this time. . o . Our population is stead- 
ily, he might say rapidly advancing across the continent 
to the borders of the Pacific Ocean. Judging from past 
experience the tide of population will sweep across the 
Rocky Mountains with resistless force at no distant pe- 
riod, when what we claim will quietly fall into our hands 
without expense or bloodshed. Time is acting for us. 
Wait patiently and all we claim will be ours ; but if we 
attempt to seize it by force, it will be sure to elude our 
grasp." 

Probably Whitman was more glad than any one that 
negotiation had not again been forced, since failure 
would have been inevitable. The wisdom of the Presi- 
dent and Secretary must have satisfied this eminently 
sensible man. He found his information as welcome as 
it was needed, and his plan to save Oregon cordially 
adopted. As yet Oregon was safe against any diplomatic 
committal, and he had the assurance of the government 
that it would wait on his plan. Practically the destiny 
of Oregon lay in his hand, for a reasonable time, by the 
consent of the government. Dr. Whitman could ask no 
more, nor do any writings or data of that time show that 
he left Washington disappointed. Specially he was re- 



228 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

lieved of the great burden of anxiety that he brought over 
the mountains, lest the interests of Oregon should be 
sacrificed or put in more imminent peril by the Ashbur- 
ton Treaty. That grave fear was quieted when we 
welcomed him in St. Louis from the Santa F6 trail, in 
February, 1843, and informed him that the Ashburton 
Treaty had been concluded six months before, and in no 
way referred to the Oregon question. 

The Doctor had arrived in Washington just in time 
to make such a visit of the greatest service in weak- 
ening the English and strengthening the American 
claims ; and to him above any other man, and beyond 
comparison, must be given the credit of saving Oregon. 
He does not appear to have left any memoranda, writ- 
ten or printed, of his interviews with the President, 
Secretary of State, or members of Congress ; nor is 
there found, as yet, any record by himself of his views 
and feelings as to his reception at Washington. He 
gained his point, made a hurried visit to Boston on 
missionary business, met his appointment with the emi- 
grant bands on the Missouri borders, led them to Oregon, 
and thus practically closed the Oregon controversy. 
Words and views, therefore, reproduced from memory, 
many years afterward, and attributed to Dr. Whitman, 
must be adjusted to the official documents and printed 
data, speeches in Congress, and correspondence of those 
days. An impression that Mr. Webster failed in hearty 
interest for Oregon has gained some circulation, though, 
as is well known, he gave the great weight of his in- 
fluence and labors to bring about the result so generally 
acceptable. This wrong impression is traceable, substan- 
tially, to three sources, recently assuming printed form 
after having been traditional for twenty years or so. 



HISTORY VINDICATED. 229 

In 1870 the Rev. H. H. Spalding, the honored and 
venerable missionary, and early associate of Dr. Whit- 
man, had these passages in a lecture which he gave here 
and there in the East : " The Doctor pushed on to Wash- 
ington and immediately sought an interview with Sec- 
retary Webster, . . . stated to him the object of his 
crossing the mountains, and laid before him the gieat 
importance of Oregon to the United States. But Mr. 
Webster lay too near to Cape Cod to see things in the 
same light with his fellow statesman, who had trans- 
ferred his worldly interests to the Pacific coast. He 
awarded sincerity to the missionary, but could not ad- 
mit for a moment that the short residence of six years 
could give the Doctor the knowledge of the country 
possessed hj Governor Simpson, who had almost grown 
up in the country, and had traveled every part of it, and 
represents it as one unbroken waste of sand deserts, and 
impassable mountains, fit only for the beaver, the gray 
bear, and the savage. Besides, he had about traded it 
oif with Governor Simpson to go into the Ashburton 
Treaty, for a cod-fishery on Newfoundland." 

He then had an interview with President Tyler, " who 
at once appreciated his solicitude and his timely repre- 
sentations of Oregon, and especially his disinterested 
though hazardous undertaking to cross the Pocky Moun- 
tains in the winter, to take back a caravan of wagons. 
He said that although the Doctor's representations of the 
character of the country, and the possibility of reaching 
it by wagon route, were in direct contradiction to those 
of Governor Simpson, his frozen limbs were sufficient 
proof of his sincerity, and his missionary character was 
sufiicient guarantee for his honesty ; and he would, there- 
fore, as President, rest upon them and act accoi'dingly, 



230 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

would detail Fremont with a military force to escort the 
Doctor's caravan through the mountains, and no more 
action should be had toward trading off Oregon till he 
could hear the result of the expedition, . . . the swap- 
ping of Oregon with England for a cod-fishery should 
stop for the present." 

The substance of this, from the same author, Mr, 
Gray found in a California paper, and copied into his 
"History of Oregon," published in 1870. 

The Rev. Mr. Hines, also the author of a history of 
that territory, as quoted by Gray, says : " On the arrival 
of Dr. Whitman in Washington he found he had not 
started one day too soon to save the northwest coast to 
the United States. The Webster- Ashburton Treaty, by 
which the United States were to relinquish to England 
the title to that part of Oregon north of the Columbia, 
was about to be executed. On his representations of the 
value of the country, and of the practicability of a wagon 
road across the continent to the Columbia, the President 
hesitated. But when these representations were en- 
forced by the fact that the Doctor's own wife, accompa- 
nied by only one white lady companion, had already 
crossed the continent, and were now in the valley of the 
Walla Walla, lone representatives of Christianity and 
American civilization, he hesitated no longer, but adopted 
the course of action which resulted in securing to the 
United States the title to Oregon up to the forty-ninth 
degree." 

The " Missionary Herald " for 1869 represents Mr. 
Webster as saying to Dr. Whitman : " Wagons cannot 
cross the mountains. Sir George Simpson, who is here, 
affirms that, and so do all his correspondents in this re- 
gion. Moreover, I am about trading Oi'egon for New* 



HISTORY VINDICATED. 231 

foundland and the English cod-fisheries." The same 
article makes President Tyler say : " Dr. Whitman, 
since you are a missionary I will believe you, and if you 
will take the proposed emigration to Oregon the bargain 
shall not be made" (pp. 76-80). 

The " Atlantic Monthly " has this paragraph : " Mr. 
Webster was at one time disposed to cede the valley of 
the Columbia River for the free right to fish on the co- 
lonial coast of the North Atlantic ; Governor Simpson 
of the Hudson Bay Company having represented Ore- 
gon as worthless for agricultural purposes, and only 
valuable for its furs. Just then Dr. Whitman arrived 
at Washington, dressed in the Mackinaw blanket coat 
and buckskin leggins in which he had crossed the Rocky 
Mountains, to plead for the retention of Oregon. ' But 
you are too late, Doctor,' said Mr. Webster, ' for we are 
about to trade off Oregon for the cod-fisheries.' " ^ 
Another authority states it thus : the treaty '' was nearly 
ready to be signed, but Dr. Whitman made such repre- 
sentations respecting the value of the country and its 
accessibility that Mr. Webster promised the treaty should 
be suppressed if the Doctor would conduct a caravan 
through to Oregon, which he engaged to do." 

In 1881 the American Board published a book called 
the " Ely Volume," designed to show the incidental 
contributions of its foreign missions to civilization, sci- 
ence, and the growth of nations. In it Webster is re- 
ported as saying to Dr. Whitman : " ' I am about trading 
that worthless territory for some valuable claims in rela- 
tion to the Newfoundland cod-fisheries.' He [Dr. 
Whitman] then went to President Tyler and said the 
same things [that he had said to Mr. Webster]. The 
1 Atlantic Monthly, October, 1880, p. 534. 



232 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

President replied, ' Dr. Whitman, since you are a mis- 
sionary I will believe you, and if you take your emi- 
grants over there, the treaty will not be ratified.' " ^ 

To the same purport the " Missionary Herald " says 
in 1882, that Dr. Whitman " barely succeeded in pre- 
venting the exchange of that whole region west of the 
mountains for some additional privileges in the New- 
foundland fishery." ^ 

The three passages, however, from Mr. Spalding, 
Mr. Hines and Mr. Gray, appear to be the original 
triplet that have produced the impressions referred to, 
that Mr. Webster did not well meet and handle the Ore- 
gon case. Like the three grains of wheat of which 
Humboldt speaks, which the negro slave of the great 
Cortez found in the imported rice, and sowed in New 
Spain, so that the New World became a wheatfield, 
these three statements have multiplied exceedingly. 
Within a few years they have reappeared in the news- 
papers, secular and religious, and in the classic monthly 
and portly volume. 

What is the historical ground for the rumor that 
Webster slighted Oregon ? These statements are pro- 
duced from memory twenty-five years, at least, after 
Dr, Whitman submitted the Oregon case to the Secre- 
tary of State. They assume that the Doctor was barely 
in time to keep the loss of Oregon out of the Ashburton 
Treaty ; as Webster " had about traded it off with Gov- 
ernor Simpson [of the Hudson Bay Company] for a 
cod-fishery on Newfoundland." This representation is 
singular in four particulars : 

First, Oregon was not a matter of negotiation between 
Ashburton and Webster. In preliminary and informal 
1 Ely Volume, p. 14. 2 October, 1882, p. 375. 



HISTORY VINDICATED. 233 

conversation, when they first met, they saw that they 
could not agree on this part of the boui?dary question, 
and so agreed to omit it. Indeed, Lord Ashburton was 
not prepared, by his papers of instruction, to take up 
the question, and was not authorized to do it, and it no- 
where appears, as yet, in the papers of the department 
of state at Washington, or in the Congressional discus- 
sion over the Ashburton and Oregon treaties, that the 
Secretary expected, or was expected by the government, 
to include the Oregon question in the Ashburton Treaty. 
There is, therefore, no reference to it in the treaty, or in 
the documents accompanying the treaty. 

Second, the charge against Webster is that he was 
about to exchange Oregon for certain English fishing 
interests on our northeast coasts, and that the timely 
arrival of Whitman at Washington prevented the Secre- 
tary of State from executing the exchange in the Ash- 
burton Treaty. The Ashburton Treaty was concluded 
six months before Whitman arrived at Washington. 
The two negotiators signed it August 9, 1842; on the 
eleventh of that month it was submitted to the Senate ; 
on the twenty-sixth it was approved, and Lord Ashburton 
started with it the same day for England ; and, having 
been ratified and returned to the United States, it was 
proclaimed on the tenth of November. Dr. Whitman 
arrived in March following. 

Third, Governor Simpson was not an agent of Great 
Britain, and had no authority to trade off cod-fisheries 
for Oregon. If Sir George Simpson even visited Wash- 
ington at that time the evidence is yet wanting, ex- 
cept in rumors. His " Narrative of a Journey Round 
the World" in 1841-1842, in which he crossed the 
continent direct and with expedition from Boston, 



234 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

via Montreal to the Columbia, makes uo mention of a 
visit to Washington, and seems to allow no time for it. 
If Webster made the reference attributed to him, it 
must have been playfully, as when he wrote his daugh- 
ter, Mrs. Paige, a few days after signing the treaty : 
" The only question of magnitude about which I did 
not negotiate with Lord Ashburton is the question re- 
specting the fisheries. That question I propose to take 
up with Mr. Seth Peterson [Mr. Webster's Marshfield 
farmer] on Tuesday, the 6th day of September next, at 
6 o'clock, A. M. In the mean time I may find a leisure 
hour to drop a line on the same subject at Nahant." 

Fourth, I find nothing in Mr. Webster's speeches, 
correspondence, official papers, or life, going to suggest 
that it was ever a plan with him to exchange American 
interests in Oregon for English interests in the fisheries. 

The statements of the authors quoted are, therefore, 
totally at variance with known facts. Memory may 
have failed the three original or first writers in the long 
lapse of years, or traditions and rumors may have come 
to seem like historic truths. In those earlier days Ore- 
gon, where these three writers lived, was a whole sum- 
mer from Washington, and information was fragmentary, 
and not always reliable. There were strong probabilities 
in the case that the Secretary did not and could not make 
such plans and offers. The United States had never 
offered to yield any territory there south of the forty- 
ninth degree. The commissioners for the Treaty of 
Ghent, 1814, were instructed to this effect: Monroe of- 
fered forty-nine in 1818 and 1824; Adams in 1826, and 
Tyler in the year of Dr. Whitman's visit. The nation 
was committed against the offer attributed to Mr. Web- 
ster, and his remark, already quoted, was but the voice 



HISTORY VINDICATED. 235 

of the government ; that " the United States had never 
offered any line south of forty-nine, and it never will." 

It is easy to see why those rumors arose and were 
repeated. Certain parties and persons were disappointed 
in the Ashburton Treaty — in the East for what it con- 
tained, and in the West for what it did not contain. 
The West was the more dissatisfied, because the north- 
western boundary was not touched, and it could not ap- 
preciate the reasons for failing to do it. 

It might have been quieting to consider what Presi- 
dent Van Buren said five years before : " It is with 
unfeigned regret that the people of the United States 
must look back upon the abortive efforts made by the 
executive for a period of more than half a century, to 
determine, what no nation should suffer long to remain 
in dispute, the true line which divides its possessions 
from those of other powers. . . . We are apparently as 
far from its adjustment as we were at the time of sign- 
ing the treaty of peace in 1783." And the question 
came into the hands of Mr. Webster with increased 
" intricacies and complexities and perplexities." 

Local ambitions on the two extremes of the Union 
were wounded because each section did not gain all it 
had claimed or coveted. A recent writer in the " Col- 
lections of the Maine Historical Society," gives expres- 
sion to the dissatisfaction of the Eastern extremists : 
" Never was there such a history of errors, mistakes, 
blunders, concessions, explanations, apologies, losses, and 
mortifications." 

W^hen Mr. Webster undertook the settlement of the 
northeastern boundary question it had been in hand 
between the two governments about sixty years. Geo- 
graphers, civil engineers and diplomatists, had sought 



236 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

the lines of the treaty and of equity, and failed. No 
new light could be reasonably looked for in the direc- 
tion of the three-score years past. Mr. Webster struck 
out on a new and confessed line of compromise as the 
only hopeful and at the same time peaceful line. He 
had not only the thinly settled inland borders of New 
England, but the whole United States, as his client. He 
had not only three hundred miles of boundary to run 
for New England, but three thousand for the Union. 
Should not the national scope of the question insure its 
broad historical treatment in our day. 

It annoyed the Western extremists that only the east- 
ern portion of the boundary was covered, and it was 
said, with some feeling : " The East can gain its ends 
at Washington, but the West must apply at London." 
With more patriotic ardor than practical sense some 
would have taken all the territory in dispute, which 
included the present British Columbia, up to Alaska, 
under the watchword : " Fifty-four Foity, or Fight." 
To all such Mr. Webster could give no aid or sympathy. 
In an article on Dr. Whitman, written in 1880, this ral- 
lying cry is attributed to his visit to Washington, and to 
his success in taking back such a band of emigrants. 
The writer repeats the statements which we have cri- 
ticised, and reproaches the Secretary for damaging Ore- 
gon. Of course Mr. Webster must disappoint such a 
man till war should become an inevitable and last re- 
sort ; and meanwhile a damaging rumor or tradition that 
he was indifferent to Oregon might gain the position 
and dignity of a historical item. 

When a national election had been carried under this 
war-cry, and before its administration was well under 
way, Mr. Webster spoke on the Oregon question in 



HISTORY VINDICATED. 237 

Faneuil Hall, Boston, and he set these sentiments in 
some of his noblest forms of English speech. Only a 
passage need be given : " No, gentlemen ! the man who 
shall incautiously, or led on by false ambition or party 
pride, kindle those fires of war over the globe on this 
question, must look out for it — must expect himself to 
be consumed in a burning conflagration of general re- 
proach." This great peace speech was reproduced in 
nearly every language on the continent of Europe. 

To any and all who purposed to possess all of the 
ancient Oregon, up to fifty-four forty, the present 
northern limit of British Columbia, even at the sacri- 
fices and issues of war, Mr. Webster was an intentional, 
operative, and formidable obstacle. Herein, no doubt, 
he offended some who may have represented his policy 
for peace as neglect of Oregon. 

Dr. Whitman's information supplemented that of the 
President, Secretary, and Congress, generally ; it recti- 
fied the wrong impressions and unjust bias which English 
statements had made, and it exposed the bold scheme 
of the Hudson Bay Company to capture the territory 
by stealthy colonization. Full time was promised him 
to show to the governmen.t that a carriage-route to 
Oregon was feasible. 

"There is no doubt," said the Honorable El wood 
Evans, " that the arrival of Dr. Whitman was oppor- 
tune. The President was satisfied that the territory was 
worth the effort to save it. The delay incident to a 
transfer of negotiations to London was fortunate ; for 
there is reason to believe that if formal negotiations had 
been renewed in Washington, and that for the sake of 
settlement of the protracted controversy, and the only 
remaining unadjudicated cause of difference between the 



238 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

two governments, had the offer been renewed of the forty- 
ninth parallel to the Columbia, and thence down that 
river to the Pacific Ocean, it would have been accepted. 
The visit of Whitman committed the President against 
any such settlement at that time." ^ 

This was progress for Dr. Whitman, and in the direct 
line of his wonderful ride, and he crowned his plan in 
the success of his cavalcade of immigrants. After his 
arrival with these, time was necessary to bring back the 
fact of success, diffuse through the country the informa- 
tion of which he had such a wealth, and so lead up to 
legislative and diplomatic action. Three years were not 
an unduly long time to bring the desired and acceptable 
end in the Oregon Treaty of 1846. For the peaceable, 
honorable, and satisfactory character of that end the 
United States and Great Britain are preeminently in- 
debted to Marcus Whitman and Daniel Webster. 

1 Senate Document 31, of 41st Congress, 3rd Session, Feb. 9, 1871, 
p. 25. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

TWO HUNDRED WAGONS FOR OREGON. 

Doctor Whitman was the envoy extraordinary of 
circumstances to Washington, to quiet the two govern- 
ments. When he came up the Santa Fe trail on that 
wonderful journey through southern Colorado and cen- 
tral Kansas and struck the lone cabins on the Missouri 
borders, he started rumors of a great emigrant caravan 
to Oregon in the spring. He assured the scattered set- 
tlers of a wagon road to the Columbia. This, he said, 
was his fourth trip to and from those waters, — includ- 
ing his first round trip of exploration to the rendezvous. 
He had taken his wife over, and she, with other white 
women, were there among friendly Indians, awaiting his 
return with a great immigration, the approaching au- 
tumn. The fears and difficulties and dangers were manu- 
factured, he assured them, at Fort Hall, and for a pur- 
pose. Emigrants had only to pass by, attending to their 
own business. An escort of friendly Cay uses would 
meet them beyond Fort Hall. He would meet the com- 
pany at Westport in June. Would they be ready ? 

The Doctor both uttered and printed his plans, and 
his words went up and down that border-land like bugle 
notes when hunters and hounds open the chase, or as 
the fiery cross traversed the Scottish highlands, when 
the clans were to be suddenly gathered. For a citizen 
of the old East to understand the temper of the region to 



240 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

which he spoke one needs to read the life of Boone and 
Crockett, or walk along behind the ox-cart of Putnam 
those months when it was hauling the family and civili- 
zation from the Connecticut to the Ohio, or stand in .1796 
and see " the nearly one thousand fiat-boats, or 'broad- 
horns,' as they were called, pass Marietta, laden with 
emigrants on their way to the more attractive regions of 
southwestern Ohio." ^ 

That families comfortably settled should break up, 
load a few camp-articles into a stout wagon, leave all 
cabin smoke behind, and plunge into unknown wilds a 
thousand or two thousand miles, is a large fact in our 
history and a question in social philosophy. 

A letter written in 1868, by one Zachrey, a Texan, 
who went with Whitman to Oregon, will serve to illus- 
trate how widely that border-call went up and down the 
great valley. One of Whitman's circulars found its way 
to the Zachrey home in Texas, while others went up 
the Ohio and Mississippi, and wherever steamers were 
then running on the fourteen thousand miles of navi- 
gable rivers between the Alleghanies and the Rocky 
Mountains. 

" Early in June you will meet me," this was the flying 
notice as Dr. Whitman came up the Santa Fe trail, those 
January and February days, into St. Louis. I shall never 
forget the appearance and ardor of the man as our inter- 
view, enjoyed under the same roof for twenty-four hours 
in St. Louis, then impressed me. Only the enthusiasm 
and indomitable will of Columbus, as he went from 
court to court, fired with the passion of his one purpose, 
can serve me as a good illustration. 

Having posted the government to the latest date on 

1 Walker's History of Athens Co., Ohio, p. Ill, Cincinnati, 1869. 



TWO HUNDRED WAGONS FOR OREGON. 241 

Oregon affairs, and having obtained assurance that new 
negotiations should not commit the United States on the 
question till he could take over his caravan of emigrants 
and report, Dr. Whitman felt that he had gained the 
end of his mission and made sure of Oregon. 

Before turning his face westward again he made a 
flying call at the missionary rooms in Boston, where he 
had been commissioned seven years before. The offi- 
cers, so the histories of Oregon say, did not measure 
the scope of his national ride, and the interview was 
much as when Eliab questioned another man who was 
too far ahead of the times to be understood : " Why 
camest thou down hither ? and with whom hast thou left 
those few sheep in the wilderness ? " David and the 
Doctor answered in due time, and quite to the satisfac- 
tion of the people. 

" Instead of being received and treated as his labors 
justly entitled him to be," says Mr. Gray, " he met the 
cold, calculating rebuke for unreasonable expenses, and 
for dangers incurred, without orders or instructions or 
permission from the mission to come to the States. . . . 
For economical and prudential reasons, the Board re- 
ceived him coldly and rebuked him for his presence be- 
fore them, causing a chill in his warm and generous 
heart, and a sense of unmerited rebuke from those who 
should have been most willing to listen to all his state- 
ments, and most cordial and ready to sustain him in his 
herculean labors." 

It will be remembered that Mr. Gray went out with 
Dr. Whitman in 1836, and was his associate in the Ore- 
gon mission, as the secular agent of the Board. He 
tlierefore knew this matter personally from the Doctor, 
who had assumed to take a commission from circum- 
stances and providences to do this grand work. 



242 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

It should be said in apology for both parties at this 
late day, that, at that time, the Oregon mission and its 
managing Board were wide asunder geographically, and 
as widely separated in knowledge of the condition of 
affairs. Dr. Whitman seems to have presumed that his 
seven years' residence on the northwest coast would gain 
him a trustful hearing. But his knowledge gave him 
the disadvantage of a position and plans too advanced 
— not an uncommon mishap to eminent leaders. Cole- 
ridge says of Milton : " He strode so far before his con- 
temporaries as to dwarf himself by the distance." 

Years afterward, when tardy times and men at the 
rear caught up with men on the ground, their mistake 
was discovered, as one of the officers writes : " It was not 
simply an American question, however ; it was at the 
same time a Protestant question." Quite recently justice 
has been rendered to Dr. Whitman in " The Ely Vol- 
ume." In providing by will for the expenses of this work 
the honorable donor expressed the wish that it detail 
some of the " instances where the direct influence of mis- 
sionaries has controlled and hopefully shaped the desti- 
nies of communities and states." The compiler says : 
*' Perhaps no event in the history of missions will better 
illustrate this than the way in which Oregon and our 
whole northern Pacific coast was saved to the United 
States." This was the very idea and work of Dr. Whit- 
man, yet quite in contrast with some of his experiences 
when he was achieving the grand enterprise. The credit 
is due, not to missions so much as to the total and sensible 
independence of the Doctor. But the misfortune of 
foresight befell him, and he worked and waited. 

With some qualifications the aphorism of Ralph 
Waldo Emerson must be accepted : " To be great is to 



TWO HUNDRED WAGONS FOE OREGON. 243 

be misunderstood." So men pay the penalty of true 
nobility of plan and action, do their work, and wait for 
the acknowledgments of following generations. 

The company of emigrants seeking Oregon under Dr. 
Whitman was gathered at Westport on the Missouri. 
This had long been the point of last departure from the 
settlements, as adventurous companies set forth on the 
Santa Fe, or California, or Oregon trail. Kansas City 
and its radiating network of railways, so like a huge 
spider's web hanging in the dew, has quite obscured that 
hopeful little town near by, and the locomotives have 
moved the point of departure for prairie wagons a thou- 
sand rniles, more or less, to the front. 

In the early part of that leafy, blushing June, 1843, 
the rattling, clustering wagons, with their dingy white 
tops, and the muscular, bronzed, and wideawake fam- 
ilies that hung fast and loose about them, made a per- 
fect gala-day at Westport. Some of them may have 
had as many new homes and plans of life as the Che- 
rokees, who are now living under their sixteenth treaty 
with government beyond the great river. How strange 
that the Indians do not settle down and make good 
citizens ! Texas was there with Whitman three years 
before it was in the Union, and no doubt other south- 
western states, as well as Illinois, Indiana, and the far- 
ther east. I remember how, in those years, caravans 
crossed at St. Louis, and struck for the interior, their 
long line of canoe wagons, with high bow and stern, 
creeping to the ferry through Illinois Town, and passing 
over, and winding up the streets. 

Those were red-letter days for ferryman Wiggins 
and that unconscious play of his thumb and finger on 
picayunes and levees. One of the wagons would be 



244 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

a curiosity to-day, with the heads of women and chil- 
dren at every loop and rent of the canvas, and kettles, 
cows, dogs, and sundries made fast behind. Father 
and sous, lank and swaying, stroll awkwardly on either 
side, each carrying the inevitable rifle. This phase of 
life has never been seen except in the United States. 
There were several in the company at Westport, noble 
and conspicuous afterward in Oregon, who had purposed 
to go before, and some had even started, whom the fears 
and adroit impossibilities manufactured at Fort Hall had 

turned back. 

« 

When the Doctor started out from the Missouri, two 
hundred wagons fell into line. Many of the men had 
property, yet it often happens that such wanderers have 
little with them, while they have left nothing behind. 
They are wealthy only in children, and are easy and af- 
fluent, financially, only in expectations. The weather, 
roads, fare, mishaps — it is all well — nothing disturbs 
the even tenor of their prairie ways, for they are " going 
West." Rent, taxes and laws, markets, store bills, and 
the fashions. Wall Street prices and Washington news, 
— of all these annoyances of the higher civilization they 
are in blissful ignorance. At the same time there are, 
inside and outside of those wagons, the noble germs and 
best elements of American life. It was the same when 
the pioneers took the Ohio, and cut up the northwest 
territory into magnificent states, and added Kentucky 
and Missouri and Iowa and others to the Union. 

For fourscore years such families and wagons have 
been carrying our frontier forward sixteen miles a year 
annually, along its entire line from the English boun- 
dary to the Mexican, a movement which has made the 
annual area of new settlements equal to two and a half 



TWO HUNDRED WAGONS FOR OREGON. 245 

states as large as Massachusetts. Just at this time, 
1843, one section of the long frontier wave was comb- 
ing into a breaker, and throwing its spray against and 
over the Rocky Mountains. In the growth and spread 
of a people, and in the occupation of wild land by tilled 
fields and neighborhoods and highways, the world never 
saw so sublime a sight. The table lands of Asia have in 
prehistoric times tilted toward Europe, and thrown for- 
ward human masses, but not a civilization ; and great 
armies have cut their way through frontiers with scythe 
chariots ; but the American scythe chariots are the reap- 
ers, and they win battles for progress and humanity on 
our vast wheatfields. Gladstone well says : " While 
we [Great Britain] have been advancing with porten- 
tous celerity, America is passing us by in the canter." 

It was some days after leaving Westport before they 
fell into good marching order, with guides, and a high- 
way construction gang ; the women and children and 
supplies were placed midway, and scouts and hunters 
ranged wildly loose. The long undulating line drew 
its slow length over the Kansas prairies, and the even- 
ing camp-fires were a wonder to Indians and buffalo 
and yelping coyotes. 

When well under way Dr. Whitman was all along 
the line, like a commanding general. " Through that 
great emigration," says Mr. Spalding, '" during that 
whole summer, the Doctor was their everywhere pres- 
ent angel of mercy, ministering to the sick, helping the 
weary, encouraging the wavering, cheering the mothers, 
mending wagons, setting broken bones, hunting stray 
oxen, climbing precipices, now in the rear, now in the 
centre, now at the front, in the rivers looking out fords 
through the quicksands, in the desert looking out water, 



246 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

ill the dark mountains looking out passes at noontide 
or midnight, as though those were his own children, and 
those wagons and those flocks were his own property." -^ 

There lie before me many letters from men in that 
company, kindly furnished by Mr. Gray, the historian 
of Oregon, to whom I am otherwise greatly indebted in 
preparing this volume. They are from the Honorable 
Jesse Applegate, Robert Newell, and J. W. Nesmith. 
A few passages quoted here and there will give us a 
good idea of the journey. The night encampment had 
much to do with the safety of the expedition. The 
Doctor usually selected the spot in advance, and laid 
out the ground in a circle, and as the train came up he 
located the first wagon on the circle. "Each wagon 
follows in its track, the rear closing on the front, until 
its tongue and ox-chains will perfectly reach from one 
to the other, and the hindermost wagon of the train 
alwaj^s precisely closes the gateway." Thus a fortifi- 
cation was made of the wagons, and the animals were 
turned loose to feed. 

" His great experience and indomitable energy were 
of priceless value to the migrating column. His con- 
stant advice, which we knew was based upon a knowl- 
edge of the road before us, was, ' travel, travel, travel ; 
nothing else will take you to the end of your journey ; 
nothing is wise that does not help you along ; nothing 
is good for you that causes a moment's delay.' 

" All able to bear arms in the party have been 
formed into three companies, and each of these into 
four watches." Each company took the watch every 
third night. After the evening meal there was a social 

1 Senate Document 37, of 41st Congress, 3d Session, February 9, 
1841, p. 22. 



TWO HUNDRED WAGONS FOR OREGON. 247 

time within the circle, and all were merry. The chil- 
dren frolicked, the young people enjoyed the violin 
and flute and dance and song, while the older re- 
counted incidents of the twenty miles' travel, and fore- 
cast the morrow and anticipated Oregon. The Doctor 
and the main guide sit aloof in grave consultation till 
they have " finished their confidential interview, and 
have separated for the night." Slowly the prattle and 
dance and violin become quiet; lovers there in the wil- 
derness say their good-night ; the guard cries, " Ten 
o'clock, and all is well ; " the smoldering camp-fires fall 
asleep as do their late attendants, and the stars come out 
and watch the silent camp, even as they watched the 
tents of Abraham when emigrating to his Oregon. 

No very serious obstacles were encountered till the 
party arrived at Fort Hall, 1,323 miles from Westport. 
Here the Hudson Bay men declared further progress 
with the wagons to be impossible, and, to convince us, 
says Mr. Nesmith, Johnny Grant of the Fort " showed 
us the wagons that the immigrants of the preceding 
years had abandoned." With these were the agricul- 
tural tools and other bulky appliances for civilizing 
the new country. 

Serious troubles confronted the Doctor. He could 
feed a thousand people on the plains, ford the rivers, 
and force the mountains, but to run the gauntlet of the 
Hudson Bay post, whose interests were so deeply in- 
volved in stopping him, was another labor. While he 
was here and there, up and down the long line, in a 
varied superintendence, the head of the column reached 
Fort Hall. The numbers in this caravan were formid- 
able, and the more so, that they were made up of fam- 
ilies who were evidently anticipating homes and civili- 



248 OREGON: THE STRU'GGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

zation on the Pacific slope. This would damage a fur- 
bearing country and strengthen American ambitions 
and claims for the territory. A desperate effort must 
be made to scatter, or divert, or turn back the company. 

When Dr. Whitman came up to the head of the col- 
umn he found that the old arts had been applied, and 
with no little success. It would be Indians, if they went 
on with that valuable retinue, and captive women and 
children ; and it would be sickness and abandoned wag- 
ons and goods, and then starvation, and all that. But 
when he spoke to them of his own experiences on that 
route through several trips, and then of the interest the 
fur-men had to keep them back, and then appealed to 
their generous and honorable feelings to trust him till 
he had at least once failed them, they rallied with en- 
thusiasm and moved on. So far as appears he did not 
lose a man or a wagon at the Fort. What aided much 
to this result was the presence of a large body of Cayuse 
Indians, who had taken this journey of hundreds of miles 
to meet their old teacher and lead him back safely to 
their mountain homes. 

As this expedition turned the balance for Oregon, so 
Fort Hall was the pivotal point. This Fort Hall, on 
Lewis, or Snake River, about one hundred miles north 
of Salt Lake City, was originally an American trading- 
post, built by N. J. Wyeth, but the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany crowded him off by the many monopolizing and 
outraging means which a wilderness life made possible. 
Many of his traders and trappers were scattered wide; 
some of them were killed, and his business generally was 
ruined. At this point many immigrant companies had 
been intimidated and broken up, and so Fort Hall served 
as a cover to Oregon, just as a battery at the mouth of 
a river protects the inland city on its banks. 



TWO HUNDRED WAGONS FOR OREGON. 249 

Here the post men had made the fatal mistake of al- 
lowing the " old wagon " of the Doctor to go through, 
seven years before. Now two hundred followed it. In 
later days, when the spirit was aroused for " the whole 
of Oregon or war," the question was raised whether it 
was to be taken under the walls of Quebec or on the 
Columbia. Neither was the place. Oregon was taken 
at Fort Hall. For it will be seen that from this time 
the grand result in the Oregon case was no longer an 
open and doubtful issue ; only details and minor adjust- 
ments required attention. 

It is reported that President Tyler promised an escort 
under Fremont to Dr. Whitman, in leading out his emi- 
grant company. This may have been so, but more or 
less traditional matter clusters about that noted inter- 
view, and at this late day finds its way into print. Noth- 
ing of the kind, however, was done ; Fremont followed 
Whitman. In the preceding year Fremont had led an 
exploring and scientific expedition from Kansas City to 
the South Pass, 250 miles east of Fort Hall. The last 
few hundred miles of this, from Fort Laramie, was over 
the old trail of Whitman and Spalding in 1836. But 
the two expeditions of Whitman and Fremont in 1843 
were not in company. They both left the same point 
on the Missouri about the same time, but by different 
routes. Fremont kept to the south of the Kansas, bore 
away almost due west along the Smoky Hills, Republi- 
can and Solomon rivers to St. Vrain's Fort on the South 
Platte, with the snowy heights of the mountains before 
him, and possibly Pike's Peak in the dim southwest. 
Thence he made a detour of nineteen days to Bent's 
Fort and Pueblo on the Arkansas, and back by Colorado 
Springs, and near to the coming Denver, to St. Vrain's. 



250 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

Thence he went over the mountains for Fort Hall by 
the Cache a la Poudre River, and early in August he 
struck the Sweet Water, and his route of the preceding 
year, which was the ordinary Oregon trail. Some sci- 
entific delays, and a visit to Salt Lake, delayed the 
Lieutenant, so that he did not arrive at Fort Hall till 
September 19 th. 

Dr. Whitman had passed this point of intrigue and peril, 
and the grand depot of wagons and farming tools, and 
was at his old home on the Columbia, in October, 
— not many days after Fremont reached the Fort. The 
very day that the head of the Doctor's army corps came 
upon his old home on the Columbia, Fremont was emerg- 
ing from the canons that concentrate around Salt Lake, 
and was hauling his rubber boat through ooze and slime 
to navigate, first of white men, that American Dead Sea. 
When, therefore, Doctor Whitman was on the Columbia 
his promised " escort " was on Salt Lake, and Lieutenant 
Fremont arrived at Whitman's Station October 23d — 
forty-nine days behind. Fremont has been justly and 
honorably called The Pathfinder, but in this instance 
he followed a trail, in its most difficult sections, which 
Whitman had beaten out by several trips, and that had 
been threaded and dared by American women seven 
years before. 

I have spoken of those calls of the Doctor for emi- 
grants, as he came up the Kansas and Missouri borders 
in his marvelous ride, and we have traced the eight hun- 
dred and seventy-five on their way with him thus far to- 
ward Oregon. But his rallying words went farther, and 
started more for the Pacific than have been yet indicated. 
We shall better see the power of that man, and his grand 
and saving plan for Oregon, if we fall in with Fre- 



TWO H UNBRED WAGONS FOE OREGON. 251 

mont, and travel and camp with him, while he finds his 
way, at the same time, into that farther west. For the 
truth is, Whitman stirred all the wild border, and the 
states inside of it, with a fascination for that romantic, 
half mythical Oregon. 

Whitman and Fremont took different directions when 
they left Westport, at about the same time. On the 
third evening out Lieutenant Fremont encamped among 
emigrant wagons freighted with families, goods, and 
farming utensils for Upper California. " For four 
days," says Fremont, " trains of wagons were almost 
constantly in sight, giving to the road a populous and 
animated appearance." This was on the trail yet com- 
mon to California and Oregon. When Fremont struck 
southerly on the California branch he saw no more of 
this till he returned to the Oregon trail on the Sweet 
Water. Now he finds " the broad smooth highways 
where the numerous heavy wagons of the emigrants had 
entirely beaten and crushed the artemisia " or sage bush. 
They notice graves where two or three pilgrims for a 
better land had passed on to a country that has no lands 
beyond. By and by they find a cow and calf, the estrays 
of some emigrant wagon, and they enjoy again the cof- 
fee of civilization. 

And again, "Our animals fared badly, the stock of 
the emigrants having razed the grass as completely as 
if we were again in the midst of the buffalo." The next 
night he " encamped with a family of emigrants, two men, 
women, and several children, and six or eight yoke of 
cattle. It was strange to see one family traveling along 
through such a country, so remote from civiHzation." 
Some time afterward " the edge of the wood for sev- 
eral miles along the river was dotted with the white 



252 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

covers of emigrant wagons, collected in groups, at dif- 
ferent camps, where the smoke was rising lazily from 
the fires around which the women were occupied in pre- 
paring the evening meal, and the children playing in 
the grass, and herds of cattle grazing about in the bot- 
tom. . . . The road in the morning presented an ani- 
mated appearance. We found that we had encamped 
near a large party of emigrants, and a few miles below 
another party was already in motion." 

The ordinary supply of fresh meat by the chase had 
failed Fremont's mountaineers, following thus in the 
footsteps of the emigrant bands. " There had been very 
little game left on the trail of the populous emigration." 
This was several weeks after Doctor Whitman had passed 
along. Midway in the long and charming Indian sum- 
mer of that region the Lieutenant arrived at the station 
of Dr. Whitman, finding here and there clearings, and 
corn and potato fields and rude houses, finished and 
unfinished, and other evidences of settlement and civiliz- 
ation. 

The most, if not all the emigrants thus overtaken and 
passed by Fremont were probably stirred to the expedi- 
tion by the tocsin and rally of that man of purpose and 
furs and frosted fingers. Too late for the company who 
were hurried off from the Missouri under the motto, 
" travel, travel, travel," they followed as best they might. 
Others may have come, as the Texan Zachrey, from very 
remote points, and made their twenty miles a day, like 
Whitman, and still failed of his company, though volun- 
teers for that army of occupation, because of his grand 
border-call to save Oregon. Some of them went over 
the Cascade Mountains late, in sleet and ice and threat- 
ening winter, famished and jaded, but they found open 



TWO HUNDRED WAGONS FOR OREGON. 253 

doors and warm fires and hearty tables at Waiilatpu on 
the Walla Walla, as only a frontier housewife can spread 
them. 

In these details of a most romantic history lying 
among the germs of the Republic on the Pacific side 
an amusing coincidence occasionally appears. In the 
" Edinburgh Review " for July, 1843, there is this state- 
ment: "One thing strikes us forcibly. However the 
political question between England and America, as to 
the ownership of Oregon, may be decided, Oregon will 
never be colonized overland from the Eastern States. 
. . . With those natural obstacles between, we cannot 
but imagine that the world must assume a new face be- 
fore the American wagons make plain the road to the 
Columbia as they have to the Ohio." While this portly 
and scholarly quarterly was following the English lan- 
guage over the world, and its fresh-cut leaves were re- 
vealing these magisterial dicta in libraries and private 
circles, in those identical July days the two hundred 
wagons of Marcus Whitman were doing this impossible 
thing, and the fourteen of Lieutenant Fremont were 
closely following. 

Doctor Whitman set foot in stirrup at his door for 
Washington, October 3, 1842, and dismounted there 
again early in October, 1843. Eleven months that he- 
roic wife and the mission band waited for the first word 
or rumor while he twice crossed the continent. They 
heard the clatter of his liorse's feet die away, as he rode 
off up the Walla Walla, and knew afterwards only that 
the mountains received him and their winter awaited 
him. What months of waiting for them, and of work- 
ing for him ! Again the clatter of a horse's feet is heard 
on the Walla Walla, and the rider leaves stirrup for the 



254 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

threshold of his cabin door. There followed him down 
the Cascade Mountains and into that splendid valley, in 
little companies, and in long, weary file, jaded and bat- 
tered, and mended after mountain style, two hundred 
emigrant wagons. They emptied their families here and 
there, the women and children ; and scattered all about 
were cattle and dogs ; while lank backwoodsmen, with 
the inevitable rifle, lounged and strolled. And they 
continued to arrive even after the light snows of the 
country have come. It was the army of occupation for 
Oregon. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE PEOPLE DISCUSS THE OREGON QUESTION. 

In old colony times few questions of public concern 
were settled without a town meeting, and that meeting 
was formidable. In revolutionary days the Royalists 
could take Bunker Hill and other noted fields of rebel- 
lion, but they could not conquer Faneuil Hall and the Old 
South meeting-house. The orderly gatherings and free 
discussion of important interests by the people were too 
much for Great Britain. When the people took up the 
Oregon question, gathered in the facts and talked them 
over together, it was soon settled. 

In the United States general legislation follows the 
people, and their will, previously ascertained, takes the 
form of law. So in this matter of Oregon, the people 
led off and Congress followed. Prior to the negotiation 
of the Ashburton Treaty Congress was almost totally 
inactive as to the use and occupation of that territory. 
It was tardy in beginning, dilatory in progress, and nega- 
tive in producing results. It contented itself with the 
policy of joint occupation, inaugurated in 1818. The 
efforts of Mr. Linn to close this policy in 1839 and 
1841 were a failure, and while the treaty was pending 
soon after, it was of course only courteous in Congress 
to be quiet on any boundary question. 

It was a disappointment to many that the treaty made 
no reference to the northwest, but the people acquiesced 



256 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

when they understood the policy which had been adopted 
and the necessity for the omission. Able and protracted 
debates in Congress followed the submission of the doc- 
ument to them, and the discussion was reported, and 
then renewed by the people. In this way much infor- 
mation concerning Oregon was scattered abroad, when 
it was much needed. Thus both knowledge and inter- 
est were developed, which must take place before tho 
rights of the United States in Oregon could be fully and 
safely asserted. 

In his message of December, 1842, President Tyler 
remarked, that " the tide of population which has re- 
claimed what was so lately an unbroken wilderness in more 
contiguous regions, is preparing to flow over those vast 
districts which stretch from the Rocky Mountains to the 
Pacific Ocean. In advance of the acquirement of indi- 
vidual rights to those lands sound policy dictates that 
every effort should be resorted to by the two govern- 
ments to settle their respective claims." 

In his message covering the Ashburton Treaty the 
President had already said that it was impracticable to 
extend the negotiations involved in the treaty so as to 
include the northwest. Therefore Oregon still rep- 
resented a great and growing international interest, and 
Mr. Linn of the Senate, early after the December mes- 
sage of 1842, introduced a call for information why 
Oregon was not included in the treaty, and also a bill 
for the occupation and settlement of the territory. A 
popular outside pressure carried discussions on these 
propositions to an engrossing extent for weeks. The 
bill was barely carried in the upper and then lost in 
the lower house. This was only fifteen days before 
the arrival of Dr. Whitman with his important informa- 



THE PEOPLE DISCUSS THE QUESTION. 257 

tion. It will be seen how timely his advent was, and of 
how much worth his facts and plans and assurance, 
while an uninformed Congress stood so evenly balanced 
on the Oregon issue. The call of Mr. Linn for infor- 
mation was answered from an unexpected quarter, and 
more amply than was possible from the portfolio of the 
Secretary of State. It is very rare that coincidences 
have so combined, and adaptations conspired in matters 
of moment to the state. 

Congress closed on the day following his arrival, and 
official public action rested till another December. But 
the people took up the question. The growth of knowl- 
edge and of opinion which he had started went on. The 
Cabinet knew his purposes and plans and his rigid con- 
fidence in their success, and so they shaped delays and 
waited to hear again from Marcus Whitman. During 
the interval of warm months and quite as " warm pop- 
ular discussion, the public became sensitive under the 
rumor that if the bill for occupation, lost in the House, 
had become a law, England would have regarded it as 
equivalent to a declaration of war. 

Congress convened in December, 1843, stimulated by 
the people to action. On the 8th of January news 
came from Oregon that Dr. Whitman had made a com- 
plete success of his emigration scheme. The same day 
a resolution in the Senate called for the instructions to 
our minister to England, and all correspondence on the 
subject. The resolution did not pass, but a similar one 
in the House did pass two days later. So these stirring 
mcidents made those times lively. 

A prevalent opinion, and one thoroughly confirmed 
by the Doctor, increased the popular ardor. The people 
had the conviction that the English were reaping all the 
17 



258 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

advantages of the " joint occupation " by pressing an 
unscrupulous monopoly, and excluding all American 
traders and trappers as far east as Fort Hall. Parties 
like Wyeth's had been broken up, and the scattered 
numbers were telling their griefs through the states. 
The news from Dr. Whitman spread wildly, and hun- 
dreds were roused to take the trail of his emigrant cara- 
van and make homes and fortunes on the Pacific. 

It was, therefore, quite a matter of course, as popular 
impulses go, when they seek the form of law by Con- 
gress, that action should be taken there to terminate the 
joint occupation by giving the required notice of twelve 
months. Mr. Buchanan urged this with extreme ear- 
nestness, and was among the first to put into prominence 
the claim for all of the primitive Oregon up to 54° 40'. 
Others made speeches similar in tone and extent of de- 
mand. The spirit of tliose urging the notice was daring 
and at times belligerent, and produced the ordinary ef- 
fects on the populace of such appeals. Unkindly feelings 
w.ere kindled against Great Britain by limited statesmen 
and demagogues ; and the Stamp Act, and tea tax, and 
Yorktown, and Lundy's Lane were paraded in and out 
of the halls of national deliberation. The people were 
put on their guard lest they be despoiled of valuable 
domain in the northwest, as it was said they had been 
in the northeast. For they wouhl not understand that 
some partisan Englishmen felt that England had been 
outdone and despoiled in the Ashburton Treaty quite as 
much as some Americans felt the reverse. Indeed, in 
Parliament the treaty was assailed as violently as in 
Congress, 

The feeling mounted high as to the extent of the 
American claims compared with the English rights. 



THE PEOPLE DrSCUSS THE QUESTION. 259 

Even the cool and conservative Winthrop was willing 
to say : " For myself, certainly, I believe that we have 
as good a title to the whole twelve degrees of latitude," 
i. e., up to 54° 40'. Mr. Benton, in presenting some peti- 
tions for the settlement of the question, was for taking 
Oregon at once, and letting consequences follow as they 
would. " Let the emigrants go on and carry their rifles. 
We want thirty thousand rifles in the valley of the Ore- 
gon ; they will make all quiet there, in the event of a 
war with Great Britain for the dominion of that coun- 
try. The war, if it come, will not be topical ; it will 
not be confined to Oregon, but will embrace the posses- 
sions of the two powers throughout the globe. Thirty 
thousand rifles on the Oregon will annihilate the Hudson 
Bay Company and drive them off our continent and 
quiet the Indians." 

To all this tone of feeling and tide of words, favored 
by many, which might have cost the nation much treas- 
ure and blood, but a poor show of honor or acres in re- 
turn, Mr. Choate well expressed the sentiments oi the 
party for delay and peace. 

"In my judgment this notion of a national enmity 
of feeling towards Great Britain belongs to a past age of 
our history. My younger countrymen are not uncon- 
scious of it. That generation in whose opinions and 
feelings the actions and the destinies of the next age 
are enfolded, as the tree in the germ, do not at all com- 
prehend your meaning, nor your fears, nor your regrets. 
We are born to happier feelings. We look on England 
as we do on France. We look on them from our new 
world, not unrenowned, yet a new world still, and the 
blood mounts to our cheeks ; our eyes swim ; our voices 
are stifled with emulousness of so much glory ; their tro- 



260 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

phies will not let us sleep. But there is no hatred at 
all, no hatred; all for honor, nothing for hate. We 
have, we can have, no barbarian memory of wrongs for 
which brave men have made the last expiation to the 
brave. . - o Do not say that theirs is an unfortunate, 
morbid, unpracticable, popular temper on the subject, 
which you desire to resist, but are afraid you shall not 
be able to resist. If you will answer for the politicians, 
I think I will venture to answer for the people." 

This speech for peace, as the clarion of a herald be- 
tween two hostile armies, was well followed by the prac- 
tical suggestions of others. It was urged that negotia- 
tions for a friendly solution of difficulties were about to 
open ; that immigration was rapidly strengthening our 
prospects ; that delay was gain ; that to precipitate a war 
on such an issue, with its costs of treasure and horrors, 
would be unpardonable in the authors, if they had not 
first exhausted all reasonable endeavors in the line of 
peace. 

In his annual message in December, 1844, President 
Tyler announced that since the close of the last session 
negotiations had been formally opened for the settlement 
of the Oregon question, and it was understood that a 
special envoy was awaited from Great Britain. Pak- 
enham arrived at Washington in February, 1845. Still 
the war spirit did not suddenly abate, and even the mes- 
sage renewed the old and rejected proposals for a chain 
of military posts from the Missouri to the mouth of the 
Columbia, and for the extension of United States laws 
over American citizens in Oregon. But neither was 
done, and a grave silence, full of promises of good, pre- 
vailed at Washington for a twelvemonth following, down 
to the first annual message of President Polk, Decem- 



THE PEOPLE DISCUSS THE QUESTION. 261 

ber, 1845. Much indeed was done then, but little of 
the work appeared to the public, except as the subject 
was touched now and then incidentally in Congress. 
Meanwhile the politicians were not inactive with the 
voting people. The press, the caucus, and the conven- 
tion fed the American appetite on Oregon. It was too 
good a plank for the makers of platforms to overlook in 
the exciting canvass for a new chief magistrate. 

Let us here pause and see to what dates and stages 
of growth our Oregon question has come. Through 
January, 1843, Congress was mainly discussing the 
policy of occupying that territory with our citizens 
and laws. The debate opened the whole question of 
title, treaty, and joint occupation, American traders and 
English monopoly. The strong men of the land, Linn, 
Calhoun, Benton, Choate, Woodbury, McDuffie, Ber- 
rien and Rives, naturally came to the front when the 
Pacific was put in danger. The milder plans were 
adopted, and affairs were left to run on languidly with 
Great Britain. 

During that same January Whitman was struggling 
over the mountains and across the plains to execute his 
plan for saving Oregon. During the first quarter of 
1844 a similar struggle with similar results was waged 
on the floor of Cono-ress. Meanwhile the Hon. Mr. 
Pakenham arrived as minister plenipotentiary to nego- 
tiate the affair, and Mr. Buchanan is associated with 
him for the LTnited States. In December Mr. Tyler 
presented his last annual message. In this he revived 
the military schemes and also recommended the exten- 
sion of United States laws over the territory. But the 
subject had a quiet sleep in Washington till Mr. Polk's 
administration opened it in March, 1845. Up to this 



262 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

date three points had been gained : the people had been 
drawn into a discussion of the subject, and with much 
intelligence ; emigration in large numbers was following 
Whitman's " old wagon ; " and plenipotentiaries for the 
two governments were in Washington discussing the 
question for a settlement. 

The English were not claiming exclusive sovereignty 
over this territory, equal in area to Great Britain and 
Ireland five and a half times, but only the rights of joint 
occupation. The United States claimed to 51° as cover- 
ing all land drained by the Columbia and belonging to 
the United States by discovery. Also, as successor to 
Spain on that coast, the United States held that their 
title as high as 60° was superior to that of England or of 
any other power. This claim was advanced early in the 
controversy, 1824. Mr. Rush, who entered the claim, 
afterward proposed 49°, and the English Commissioners 
proposed from the mountains to the Columbia, and thence 
down it to the sea. Both failed in 1824. Two years 
later the two parties renewed these proposals, but only 
to be mutually rejected. Mr. Gallatin, however, gave 
notice that his government would not hereafter feel 
bound to any line previously offered, " but would con- 
sider itself at liberty to contend for the full extent of 
the claims of the United States." Such was the con- 
dition of the case even down to the first annual mes- 
sage of President Polk, December, 1845. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

IMMIGRANTS SETTLE THE OREGON QUESTION. 

" When the 4th of September, 1843, saw the rear of 
the Doctor's caravan of nearly two hundred wagons 
emerge f?'om the western shades of the Blue Mountains 
upon the plains of the Columbia, the greatest work was 
finished ever accomplished by one man for Oregon on 
this coast," This testimony of Mr. Spalding is true 
concerning his old companion in travel. It was neces- 
sary now only to report this success of the expedition 
along the frontier and among the friends of the party of 
nearly nine hundred, to stir the border heart for wilder 
fields. The news soon spread, and the passion to follow 
became infectious. In the saddle, by the camp-fires and 
cabin hearths, and around the stores and gossipy corners, 
the expedition was discussed, and a western fever set in 
that took off great numbers the next year. Greenhow 
estimates the American population of Oregon at the 
close of 1844 at more than 3,000. Mr. White, the In- 
dian agent for government, sets it at about 4,000, while 
Hines says : "In 1845 it increased to nearly 3,000 souls, 
with some 2,000 or 3,000 head of cattle." Through the 
whole west there was a warmth of anticipation and a 
growing zeal for the settlement and possession of Or- 
egon. 

Perhaps no one expressed better these feelings than 
Mr. Owen, in the House of Representatives from Indiana ; 



264 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

" Oregon is our land of promise. Oregon is our land of 
destination. ' The finger of nature ' — such were once 
the words of the gentleman from Massachusetts [J. Q. 
Adams] in regard to this country, — ' points that way,' 
2,000 Americans are already indwellers of her valleys, 
5,000 more . . . will have crossed the mountains before 
another year rolls round." Mr. Semple, senator from 
Illinois, thought that 10,000 would go over the next 
year. 

These speeches were made in January, 1844 ; and 
they were not very visionary, since in 1846 the white 
population of Oregon was about 12,000. Probably all 
of these, except 1,000, were American immigrants. All 
this must have been exceedingly interesting to Dr. 
Whitman, as he saw the long lines of white wagons and 
the thousands of cattle come down the Cascade Moun- 
tains, crowning the heroism of his ride, and also of his 
*' old wagon." Like many a radical that wagon was 
ahead of the times and dishonored, but finally honor 
overtook it. 

For the sake of any Eastern reader who is burdened 
with a provincial skepticism about this marvelous emi- 
gration over our border, a few data of crossings of the 
Missouri may be reported for 1846. At St. Joseph's, 
Elizabethtown, Iowa Point, Council Bluffs, and the 
Nishwabatona, 271 wagons passed over for Oregon and 
California. Allowing five persons to a wagon there were 
about 1,350, and their live stock may be estimated at 
5,000 head. At Independence 187 wagons crossed. 
Here are nearly 2,000 persons at these six crossings 
headed for the Pacific that season. Yet the oracular 
" Edinburgh Review," deep in the interests of the Hud- 
son Bay Company, is confident that " Oregon never wilJ 



IMMIGRANTS SETTLE THE QUESTION. 265 

be colonized overland from the Eastern states." " Who- 
ever is to be the future owner of Oregon, its peoj^le will 
come from Europe." 

The mistake is not, perhaps, strange, since the narrow 
compass of England can but poorly appreciate or allow 
for long journeys and vast rivers and mountain ranges, 
with which the American is necessarily familiar, and 
takes to easily. When all tHe twenty realms of Eu- 
rope can be laid down in the United States, and broad 
margins be left here for sections of Asia, we must 
not expect an insular English quarterly to define our 
capacities for emigrating travel. Some twenty years 
later, when emigration to Oregon and California was at 
high tide, one of our college presidents, coming in over 
the border, met in one day, he informed me, eight hun- 
dred and nineteen yoke of emigrant oxen, hauling their 
wagons and carts " out west." 

As already stated, while Doctor Whitman was in the 
East the first steps for a civil government by Americans 
in Oregon were taken at the " wolf meeting." An arti- 
cle in the first section of the original code for that terri- 
tory is an index to the tone and purpose of the people : 
" Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to 
good government and the happiness of mankind, schools 
and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." 
A state house was built, and so like the foundation of 
things, as that it might well satisfy the most economical. 
" Posts set upright, one end in the ground, grooved on 
two sides, and filled in with poles and split timber, such 
as would be suitable for fence rails, with plates and poles 
across the top. Rafters and horizontal poles held the 
cedar bark, which was used instead of shingles for cov- 
ering. It was twenty by forty feet. At one end some 



266 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

puncheons were put up for a platform for the president ; 
some poles and slabs were placed around for seats ; three 
planks one foot wide and about twelve leet long, placed 
upon a sort of stake platform for a table, for the use of 
the legislative committee and the clerks." The Pil- 
grim or Jamestown Fathers could not have been more 
primitive in their first halls of justice. But equity be- 
tween man and man is not necessarily a matter of archi- 
tecture, upholstery and the woolsack. 

This government was set up while Whitman was at 
the head of his two hundred wagons, and it set aside, so 
far as the Americans were concerned, the royal one 
transferred from Canada. Soon after it was inaugu- 
rated, it was strengthened by the arrival of the Doctor 
and his great immigration. This foreclosed the Oregon 
question, leaving for the future only the dry and tedious 
details of diplomacy and Congress. 

When the Hudson Bay Company saw an American 
government over their game preserve, and the invasion 
of it by that long cavalcade, and heard that Oregon was 
not touched in the late treaty, they changed their tactics, 
and renewed their struggles to save their monopoly on 
the Pacific. All Americans who proposed to settle in 
the territory were denied employment or supplies by 
them. All who could be persuaded to remove to Cali- 
fornia — as yet a Mexican province — were provided 
with a generous outfit, and also with notes payable in 
California, which, it was understood, were never to be 
collected of those who took them under pledge to leave 
Oregon. And this policy to deplete Oregon of Ameri- 
cans was pursued till the final adjustment of the question 
by the two governments. Yet, strange to say, the Com- 
pany were at the same time following up most stringent 



IMMIGRANTS SETTLE THE QUESTION. 267 

measures to keep back immigration to their own side. 
When, in 1857, the time drew near for the Company to 
renew its lease of the Indian territories — wilderness 
on the west of Rupert's Land — the subject came before 
a select committee of Parliament, and the " Westmin- 
ster Review " of July, 1867, thus reports the testimony 
of one Isbister, a native and employee of the Com- 
pany : 

" He confirms the statement that all further settlement 
was opposed by the goyernment, all trade practically 
stopped, since those who held land were prohibited from 
importing goods from any port but London, from any 
part of the port of London except the warehouses of the 
Hudson Bay Company, by any ships except their ves- 
sels, or into any port in Rupert's Land except York 
Factory in Hudson Bay, where they were charged a duty 
of five per cent. . . . In 1^45 the same body pa,ssed a 
resolution imposing twelve and a half per cent, on all the 
goods landed at York Factory for the Red River Col- 
ony. ... A very decided amendment proposed by Mr. 
Gladstone, recommending that the country capable of 
colonization should be forthwith withdrawn from the 
jurisdiction of the Company, was negatived by the cast- 
ing vote of the chairman." 

If the Hudson Bay Company wished to retain Oregon 
for England, their policy was spoiled by more than a 
fallacy ; it had in it a fatuity. The Company was thus 
working, also, in violent conflict with the interests of the 
government that incorporated it. The case is an emphatic 
illustration of a corporate monopoly that can outgrow and 
override the government that incorporated it. It is a 
case worthy of study by American legislators. 

In this connection it should be stated that five years 



268 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

before, the intention of the Company had been declared 
to intrust the Indians to the Jesuits for opposition to 
the Americans, and to arm their eight hundred half- 
breeds and employees against any military force from the 
States. They had stationed a ship of war at Vancouver, 
and after the provisional government had been inaugu- 
rated they strengthened that fort with bastions, and fur- 
nished the Indians with military supplies. Meantime 
the scattering of immigrants at Fort Hall, the charges 
to them there for flour at forty dollars the barrel, and 
other supplies in proportion, and the introduction of col- 
onists from the Red River, must not be forgotten. 

The outlines of American government gradually took 
on form and expansion and strength, and, though they 
had no criminals to imprison, the legislative committee 
of 1844 recommended the building of a jail, with the re- 
mark : " We are assured that it is better policy to have 
the building standing without a tenant, than a tenant 
without the building." The committee also suggested 
provision for the insane. Quite after the spirit of the 
colonial legislatures of early times, they expressed the 
hope " that Oregon, by the special aid of Divine Provi- 
dence, may set an unprecedented example to the world 
of industry morality, and virtue," and by " a diligent 
attention to agriculture, arts, and literature, attain an 
elevation as conspicuous as any state or power on the 
continent." 

While the government was making this general prog- 
ress the Indian agent reported the suppression of the 
liquor trade among them, their fine crops, the export 
of wheat, beaver, salmon and lumber, and the import 
from the Sandwich Islands of sugar, molasses, tea, and 
coffee, orderly and decorous proceedings in the courts, 



IMMIGRANTS SETTLE THE QUESTION. 269 

hopeful Indian farming, small Catholic schools, and a 
JNJethodist institution, where much proficiency had been 
shown in the primary branches. In the year following, 
1845, the agent says : " Moral and religious influence, 
I regret to say, is waning, yet it is gratifying to observe 
an increasing interest upon the subject of schools and 
education, and I am happy to say we have now eleven 
schools this side the mountains, most of them small, to 
be sure, but they are exerting a salutary and beneficial 
influence." 

The intelligent American will see here those germs 
of a territorial organization, and the foreshadowing of a 
state, such as have enriched and enlarged our borders 
from colonial times. The interest shown in education, 
morals, and religion are quite a repetition of the territo- 
rial history of " the Ohio." 

The American principle of rule by the people and by 
majority vote had come into Oregon, and the minority 
paid it deference. The boast of Mr. Dunn is seen to be 
baseless : " The Americans, with the exception of a few 
missionary and agricultural establishments, have scarcely 
any possession or hold on the country. . . . They have 
not an inch of land from California to the Pole, from 
the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, to which they have 
undisputed right, and not one single trading-post or 
station." 

As the whole of Oregon was in question between the 
two governments no one had " undisputed right " to a 
cabin lot even, and if the Americans had no trading-posts 
they had family homes of unmixed blood, and schools 
and court room and ballot-boxes. 

The theory of both nations, title by colonial and do- 
mestic occupation, had been put into practice. Few men 



270 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

appreciated tliis theory better, or more aptly urged its 
practice, than the Honorable Rufus Choate. Against 
\indictive feelings toward Great Britain, or schemes of 
demagogues, or sectional ambitions, or the indiscreet ar- 
dor and impulses of real patriotism which would have 
precipitated war, he urged immigration from the states 
as the wisest and most speedy means to gain the title. 
With his own inimitable grace of thought and language 
he spoke in the Senate in 1844 against the resolution to 
close the arrangement for joint occupation : • — 

" Oregon, which a noiseless and growing current of 
agricultural immigration was filling with hands and hearts 
the fittest to defend it — the noiseless, innumerous move- 
ment of our nation westward. . . . We have spread 
to the Alleghauies, we have topped them, we have dif- 
fused ourselves over the imperial valley beyond ; we have 
crossed the Father of Rivers ; the granite and ponderous 
gates of the Rocky Mountains have opened, and we 
stand in sight of the great sea. . . . Go on with your ne- 
gotiation and emigration. Are not the rifles and the 
wheat growing together, side by side ? Will it not be 
easy, when the inevitable hour comes, to beat back 
plowshares and pruning-hooks into their original forms 
of instruments of death ? Alas, that that trade is so easy 
to learn and so hard to forget ! " Quite in contrast with 
the war spirit and speech of Colonel Benton : " We 
want thirty thousand rifles in the valley of the Oregon." ^ 

So the point was carried by immigrants rather than 
soldiers. The United States found to be true what the 
world knows, that plows hold a country better than steel- 
traps ; and Great Britain learned that the law of nations 
in assigning a new country is apt to follow the track of 
1 Debates in Congress, vol. xv. 142, and preceding. 



IMMIGRANTS SETTLE THE QUESTION. 271 

immigrant wagons. Stopping them at Fort Hall was 
but a temporary expedient, and when two hundred 
passed by, as cars pass a station, and went over peace- 
fully into the valley of the Columbia, the end of contro- 
versy was brought very near ; the army of occupation 
had moved into Oregon, and it remained only to talk 
over the conclusion, to draw up and sign the papers. 



CHAPTER XXVIT. 

*' FIFTY-FOUR FORTY, OR FIGHT." 

President Polk devotes one fifth of his long mes- 
sage of December 2, 1845, to the Oregon question. In 
it he rehearses the attempts at settlement, states the 
offers on both sides and their mutual rejection, and de- 
clares that there has been not only a total failure as to 
settlement, but no progress toward it. He informs 
Congress that " the proposition of compromise, which 
had been made and rejected, was, by my direction, sub- 
sequently withdrawn, and our title to the whole Oregon 
territory [from 42° to 54° 40'] asserted, and as it is 
believed, maintained by irrefragable facts and argu- 
ments." 

Mr. Polk recommended that the joint occupation be 
terminated by the stipulated notice, that the civil and 
criminal jurisdiction of the United States be extended 
over the whole of Oregon, and that a line of stockades 
and military posts be established along the route from 
the states to the Pacific, together with an adequate 
force of mounted rifles, for the encouragement and pro- 
tection of immigration. As early as 1824 Mr. Monroe 
had recommended the establishment of one post at the 
mouth of the Columbia. Should the notice be given, 
he thought the government should put itself in a posi- 
tion to maintain firmly its rights in that territory at the 
expiration of the year of notice. Hence the partisan 
watchword ; " Fifty -four Forty, or Fight." 



''FIFTY-FOUR FORTY, OR FIGHT:' 273 

A very grave issue was thus put before the American 
people ; indeed, few had equaled it. For more than 
six months it engrossed Congress, and the whole coun- 
try was agitated by it. Had the hopeful condition of 
things in Oregon been better understood, so much ex- 
citement would have been impossible. But then that 
country was farther from Washington fourfold than 
China to-day, and the germs of a new state for the Union 
were not obvious even to observers. The ardor spread 
into all parts of the land and pervaded all departments 
of American life. What Spalding's half pint of seed 
wheat had become to the broad fields of the Columbia, 
the purpose and plan of Whitman had become in the 
States. Only war was no part of his plan and was in 
no proper way necessary to its success. That was the 
tares that would possibly work in among the wheat. 
War with England would probably have stayed the 
Mexican war, then imminent, or given different issues 
to it. 

England had her MacNamara scheme to plant an 
Irish colony in California, bring about the revolt of 
that province from Mexico, and put it under an Eng- 
lish protectorate. Peace with England and war with 
Mexico enabled the United States to spoil that plot and 
take California herself. Fremont, with more energy 
than red tape, wrought great things in California for 
North America. Quite naturally Alaska followed Cali- 
fornia to the United States, and now our domain on the 
Pacific coast runs 6,411 miles to England's 450. Fight- 
ing for 54° 40' would, perhaps, have lost us the whole. 

It was a wonderful battle of fact, argument, and pa- 
triotism in Congress, and the men were worthy of the 
struggle, now grandly historic When we name a few 
18 



274 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

on both sides, the whole are suggested — Crittenden, 
Benton, McDuffie, Webster, and Calhoun, Adams, Cass, 
Choate, and Winthrop. The grandeur and gravity of 
that high debate were enhanced by the facts, above 
hinted, that during those same months Texas came into 
the Union and the Mexican war with it. 

Following close on the message of the President, and 
quite naturally, there arose a long discussion on the na- 
tional defenses, since, as Mr. Crittenden announced, 
" war might now be looked upon as almost inevitable." 
Resolutions were offered affirming Oregon to be part 
and parcel of the territory of the United States from 
42° to 54° 40', and that notice should be given at once 
to terminate the joint occupation of it. A key to the 
tone and ardor of the House may be found in a single 
remark there : " No doubts now remain in the minds of 
American statesmen, that the government of the United 
States holds a clear and unquestionable title to the whole 
of the Oregon territory." There were not wanting Hot- 
spurs to echo this sentiment. 

McDuffie would " rather make that territory the grave 
of his fellow-citizens, and color the soil with their blood, 
than to surrender one inch." At this time the Hudson 
Bay Company had about thirty trading posts in the ter- 
ritory, which were really forts and defensible in frontier 
war. The United States had about 7,000 citizens in 
the same country. Mr. Yancey considered the question 
of notice a very grave one. " This notice, if given, 
would be a war move. It is argued as such. Mr. Polk 
deems it as such. In itself it is such a move. What, 
then, is the object ? I am told, to obtain all of Oregon. 
I, too, go for all of Oregon. I go for it up to 54° 40'.'* 
But at the close of a war he thought " Oregon would 



''FIFTY-FOUR FORTY, OR FIGHT:' 275 

be found in the hands of England, and Canada would 
be in our possession. . . . We are on the point of pur- 
chasing the magnificent territory of California, which, 
with Oregon, would give us a breadth of Pacific coast 
suited to the grandeur and commercial importance of 
our Republic. All this would be blighted by a war. 
California would be lost to us. A debt of five hundred 
millions would be imposed upon the country." 

Yet Douglas of Illinois denied this, and argued that 
the notice would not lead to war ; while Jefferson Davis 
urged peace measures as the surest way to secure all our 
rights. As the great debate progressed in the high 
councils of the nation, strong hostility to Great Britain 
was developed, and one senator, Westcott, went so far 
as to say : " I have no feelings of friendliness for Great 
Britain, none whatever. ... I saw the torch which 
wrapped the Capitol in flames applied by the hand of 
the incendiary. ... If war should once be declared, my 
whole soul and my whole strength will be exerted on 
the side of my country." 

The question of notice was discussed with increasing 
ardor in the House, with necessary intermissions, for 
more than forty days, and then it was carried by the 
decided vote of 163 to 54. Tlie depth of honest convic- 
tion, and at the same time opposition of view may be seen 
in the fact that John Quincy Adams voted in the affirm- 
ative, and Robert C. Winthrop in the negative, both 
from the same state, and of high international renown. 

In the Senate the struggle was much longer. There 
it was asserted that England would not dare to carry the 
controversy to the extreme, since, " the first act of our 
government in case of war would be to expel the British 
power from all her possessions on this continent." If 



276 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

the view of Senator Clayton may be admitted, the cer- 
tainty of war and its fearful devastations were already 
assumed facts, for he said : " The apprehension of war 
has decreased and almost paralyzed the business of the 
country. Already the capital of traders is withdrawing 
itself into chests and drawers and old stockings." In- 
surance increased on commerce, and returning vessels 
remained inactive at the wharves. 

Mr. Benton affirmed that negotiations had made no 
progress toward settlement since the Treaty of Ghent, 
and he agreed with the President in the measures pro- 
posed. He had been clear against joint occupation for 
twenty-eight years, as " a treaty of unmixed mischief to 
the United States." Joint occupation he regarded as an 
anarchy, an impossibility, and an absurdity, and that to 
terminate it by notice would be a peace measure, and he 
would adopt it, " regardless of consequences." 

The discussion became not only engrossing, but almost 
monopolizing, for threescore bills and resolutions were 
kept waiting on the calendar for their time. Crittenden 
moved into the debate at a late hour, seeing no need of 
haste, and still maintaining that the difficulties should be 
kept open to negotiations. It was a quieting announce- 
ment of personal opinion, when he said : " A majority 
is decidedly in favor of preserving the peace of the coun- 
try honorably, and of settling this question peaceably 
and honorably, by compromise, negotiation, arbitration, 
or by some other mode, known and recognized among 
nations, as a suitable and proper and honorable mode of 
settling national questions." 

Mr. Webster, fresh from the Ashburton Treaty, long 
held himself aloof from the great debate, while yet a 
watchful listener. When he broke his silence he did it 



''FIFTY-FOUR FORTY, OR FIGHT.'' 277 

briefly, excusing his fewness of words on the ground that 
the matter was in negotiation, and if it would not be in- 
decorous for Congress to discuss it during negotiations, 
it might embarrass the administration in coming to the 
best results. But he early foretold the way in which 
the difficulty would be settled, — by compromise, — and 
on what line, — the forty-ninth. 

This could readily be foretold by him, for in his prep- 
arations to meet Lord Ashburton, and in the profound 
historical discussions resulting in the draft of that treaty, 
he traversed the ground of discoverers and explorers and 
fur traders and settlers, as well as all conventions and 
treaties of the United States, and of other nations, perti- 
nent to the settlement of the northwestern boundary. 
All this information he had made available at the time 
only for the postponement of the Oregon question. Now, 
in full possession of the facts of right in the case, and 
knowing the American lack of absolute title up to these 
high pretensions, he enjoyed a dignified silence in seeing 
partisan debaters strike right and left blindly with their 
" impregnable facts and arguments " to show " that our 
title to the whole of Oregon is clear and unquestionable." 
Some of the speeches do not show knowledge enough of 
the case to embarrass the purpose or the eloquence of 
the speakers. 

Knowing that historical data and treaties were want- 
ing to settle the dispute as one of pure rights, and know- 
ing, too, that on all exciting and popular topics a certain 
amount of speech-making is irrepressible, and therefore 
indispensable, he waited patiently and silently for the 
wagons of Whitman, and the compromising pens of ne- 
gotiators. In one compact sentence Webster put him- 
self on the record of those days : " I say, for one, that, 



278 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

in my opinion, it is not the judgment of this coun- 
try — it is not the judgment of the Senate — that the 
government of the United States should run the hazard 
of a war for Oregon by renouncing, as no longer fit for 
consideration, the proposition of adjustment made by 
this government thirty years ago, and repeated in the 
face of the world." 

While the debate was in progress, and in one of 
its suspensions, Mr. Webster did one thing, indirectly, 
to dignify the discussion, and lift it from the partisan 
and provincial into the national and international ; he 
imparted the needed thoughtfulness and emotion to 
bring the conviction that a question of territorial rights 
on a treaty line of a thousand miles, and of war between 
two great nations, was a question of great gravity. The 
Ashburton Treaty had been made a target, in and out of 
Congress, for barbed arrows aimed somewhat at it, and 
somewhat at its American author. For two or three 
years the position of Mr. Webster, in the Cabinet or 
in private life, had made it unfitting for him to notice 
these attacks publicly. Now in the Senate, when the 
same great question of boundary was before that body 
and the country, he deemed it both useful and fitting to 
make a defense of the Ashburton Treaty. The speech 
of two days was a noble apologetic in the best sense of 
that old word, and while it set forth the treaty in its most 
important relations to .two great nations, its indirect and 
powerful influence was to add weighty anxiety to the 
discussion then progressing on the northwestern boun- 
dary. 

More and more daily, as the weeks of this great de- 
bate went by, the claims and the hopes of peaceable con- 
clusions gained ground. Calhoun rose to the dignity of 



''FIFTY-FOUR FORTY, OR FIGHT:' 279 

the occasion and to the solemnity of the issue, while he 
urged delay and peaceful steps, saying : " A question of 
greater moment never has been presented to Congress 
from the days of the Revolution to the present." 

Mr. Dayton followed in the line of thought that 
finally prevailed: "I would insist that things remain 
exactly as they are. I would meet Great Britain by a 
practical adoption of her doctrine, that title to this coun- 
try can be acquired only by occupancy. . , . The very 
question to be settled is, What is our own ? After twen- 
ty-seven years of debate we are no nearer a conclusion 
than we were at first." He, too, saw the end only in 
the plan of Dr. Whitman, which was so silently and 
energetically taking possession of the valley of the 
Columbia. 

When the debate had well progressed, Mr. Evans 
boldly foreshadowed a limitation of the claims of the 
extremists, and so narrowed the discussion and drew it 
toward the close : " I will not sit here and be told, over 
and over again, that our title to 54° 40^ is so clear, so 
beyond all possibility of doubt or hesitation that he who 
falters in maintaining it at once by the sword is recreant 
to the love of his country." 

The United States had offered 49° from the mountains 
to the sea, and Great Britain had offered 49° from the 
mountains to the Columbia, and by it to the sea. Hence 
these incisive words of Mr. Evans cut off much verbiage 
and moved the controversy far along from rhetorical 
and political harangue toward an intelligent and equit- 
able conclusion. " What, then, is the actual matter in 
dispute ? It is only that strip of land lying between the 
Columbia River and the latitude of forty-nine, being a 
triangle, extending along the Pacific two hundred miles 



280 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

and from the river to the ocean three hundred and fifty, 
containing in all, according to my computation, about 
58,000 square miles." 

Mr. Calhoun braced these views and hastened the con_ 
elusion by compromise in one of his best speeches, and 
Mr. Webster added impetus again in the same direction : 
" One who has observed attentively," he said, " what has 
transpired here and in England within the last three 
months, must, I think, perceive that public opinion, in 
both countries, is coming to a conclusion that this con- 
troversy ought to be settled, and is not very diverse, in the 
one country or the other, as to the general basis of such 
settlement. That basis is the offer made by the United 
States to England in 1826." 

To this complexion the Oregon question had come in 
the Senate at the close of March, 1846, and the end seemed 
near. However, Mr. Cass renewed the struggle, assert- 
ing that the just claim of the United States " extended 
from California to the Russian boundary," and he was 
disposed to press that claim, at the peril of war, which, 
he thought, had been too gloomily represented. But this 
created only another verbal eddy in the majestic current 
of thought and speech that was flowing on toward the 
peaceful sea. As the debate went on over the resolu- 
tion of notice to quit joint occupation, the tendency to 
compromise on 49° grew more and more evident, and 
finally this appeared inevitable. It remained only a 
question of time based on the calculation how much 
would be needed to deliver prepared speeches and work 
party tactics and advance personal interests. 

The resolution of notice had passed the House Feb- 
ruary ninth, and came at once to the Senate. So fully 
had the expectation of a compromise line and peace pos- 



''FIFTY-FOUR FORTY, OR FIGHTS 281 

sessed the Senate, while it was known that favorable ne- 
gotiations were going on, that it became a matter unim- 
portant whether the vote for notice passed or not. But 
it was passed April 23, 1846, by a vote of forty-two to 
ten, with two important amendments : a strong sugges- 
tion to both governments that the differences between 
them be adjusted amicably and speedily, and that the 
President take his own time to serve the notice, and give 
it " at his discretion." 

The notice was thus relieved of its war features, and 
Congress and the people of anxiety about war. For 
men,- prominent in both houses, had asserted that both 
nations would favor a compromise, and so an amicable 
adjustment. In the confident expectation of a treaty on 
this basis, anxiety abated, and commerce, trade, and the 
general pursuits of peace began to resume their old cur- 
rents. 

For four months and twenty-one days after its intro- 
duction by the message of President Polk this subject had 
engrossed Congress and the country. The lack of knowl- 
edge concerning it made the progress of discussion tardy 
and warm. For it was a tedious and trying process, in 
a deliberative body, to separate the traditions, assertions, 
impressions, and patriotic passions from the real facts and 
rights in the case. But the great debate over " Fifty- 
four Forty, or Fight " ended in a peaceful and mutually 
satisfactory manner. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

AT LAST A TREATY. 

The first article in this treaty reads as follows : 
" From the point on the forty-ninth parallel of north 
latitude where the boundary laid down in existing trea- 
ties and conventions between the United States and 
Great Britain terminates, the line of boundary between 
the territories of the United States and those of her 
Britannic Majesty shall be continued westward along the 
said forty-ninth parallel of north latitude to the middle 
of the channel which separates the continent from Van- 
couver's Island, and thence southerly through the middle 
of the said channel, and of Fuca's Straits to the Pacific 
Ocean : Provided, however, that the navigation of the 
whole of the said channel and straits, south of the forty- 
ninth parallel of north latitude, remain free and open to 
both parties." 

For the United States and Great Britain to write and 
sign that article required fifty-four years, two months, 
and six days. On the 11th of May, 1792, Captain 
Robert Gray, of Boston, discovered the Columbia River, 
and so established a United States title to the country 
that it drains. On the 17th of July, 1846, this article 
having been previously ratified by each government, was 
exchanged at London between the two govei-nments, 
and so the title was confirmed to the United States. 

When the two governments were in negotiation as to 



AT LAST A TREATY. 2^3 

the northern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase in 
1807, Mr. Jefferson wished the forty-ninth parallel to 
be the line between the two, '^ as far as their said re- 
spective territories extend in that direction." The 
English attack on the Chesapeake prevented the ratifi- 
cation of this projected agreement. After the war, and 
in the Treaty of Ghent, 1814, no notice was paid to the 
boundary west of the Lake of the Woods, As that 
treaty provided for the restoration of all possessions 
taken by either from the other during the war, Astoria 
was claimed by the United States. England declined to 
give it up, as never having been a national possession of 
the United States, but private property, and sold, as an 
individual enterprise, to English subjects before its for- 
mal capture. It was, however, restored as a piece of 
property, but the question of national title amd sover- 
eignty in it was kept in abeyance. 

At the time of its restoration Astoria was a stockade 
post, 150 by 250 feet, with two bastions, twenty-^one pieces 
of small artillery and sixty-five men, of whom twenty- 
three were white, and the rest half-breeds and Hawai- 
ians. Ill 1818, the question of boundary again became a 
matter of negotiation at London, through Messrs. Rush 
and Gallatin. The English copamissioners made an 
attempt to secure the right of navigating the Mississippi, 
but of course failed, and finally agreed to the 49° from 
the Lake of the Woods to the mountains. In discussing 
claims to territory beyond the mountains the American 
commissioners " did not assert that the United States 
had a perfect right to that country, but insisted that 
their claim was at least good against Great Britain." 
On the other hand the English commissioners did not 
propose SLUJ boundary, but intimated that the Columbia 



284 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

would best accommodate both, and said that England 
would insist on holding the mouth of it in common with 
the United States. In this mutual dissent and failure 
the plan of joint occupation for ten years was adopted 
and signed October 20, 1818. 

The next year the Florida Treaty made the United 
States an heir to all Spanish claims and rights north 
of 42°. Early in 1820, the House of Representatives 
raised inquiries concerning the settlements on the Pa- 
cific, and the expediency of occupying the Columbia. A 
committee reported that the whole territory from 41° to 
53°, if not to 60°, belonged of right to the United States, 
and they recommended " small trading guards " on the 
heads of the Missouri, and at the mouth of the Columbia 
to protect immigration and trade. The report, with es- 
timates of cost, was laid on the table, and the business 
slept again till 1823. 

That year a peculiar project was started by the United 
States, and it is thus stated by Mr. Benton : " That 
each of the three powers, Great Britain, Russia, and the 
United States, having claims on the northwest of Amer- 
ica, should divide the country between them, each taking 
a third. In this plan of partition each was to receive 
a share of the continent from the sea to the Rocky 
Mountains, Russia taking the northern slice, the United 
States the southern, and Great Britain the centre, with 
54o 40^ for her northern boundary, and 49° for her 
southern." The project was not acceptable to the other 
parties. In offering it Mr. Rush stipulated that the 
United States would not settle north of 49°, if the Eng- 
lish would confine themselves between it and 54° 40' 
In view of this offer by the United States in 1823, Eng- 
land must have looked with surprise on our claim to 
54° 40' in 1846, with the alternative of war. 



AT LAST A TREATY. 285 

Extracts from two letters of Mr. Adams, Secretary 
of State, will show how the United States regarded her 
rights over the mountains at that time : " The right of 
the United States from the 42d to the 49th parallels of 
latitude on the Pacific Ocean we consider as unquestion- 
able." And again : " I mention the latitude of fifty-one 
as the bound within which we are willing to limit the 
future settlements of the United States. . . . As, how- 
ever, the line is already run in latitude forty-nine to the 
Stony Mountains, should it be earnestly insisted upon by 
Great Britain, we will consent to carry it into continu- 
ance on the same parallel to the sea." ^ 

When the proposal for a tripartite plan failed, the 
United States offered joint occupation for ten years, dur- 
ing which time the English were to make no settlements 
north of 55° or south of 49°. The English ofPered 49° 
to the Columbia, and thence to the sea by it, with free- 
dom of settlement, navigation and travel, to both parties 
throughout the entire territory for ten years. Both 
offers were rejected, and the question rested till 1827. 

When the convention of joint occupation was then 
expiring, negotiations were revived. Great Britain re- 
newed her last offer, and the United States repeated the 
offer of 1818, which was substantially — the 49th to the 
sea, free and perpetual navigation of the Columbia, set- 
tlers of either nation outside these agreed boundaries 
could remain for ten years, but no more new ones. 
The proposals were mutually declined, and the policy 
of joint occupation was renewed to run indefinitely, 
with right to termination on notice of one year by 
either party. This was in 1827. 

In 1831, Mr. Livingston, Secretary of State, informed 

^ Debates in Congress, vol. xv., 534. 



286 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

Mr. Van Buren, minister to England, that " the subject 
is open for discussion, and until the rights of the parties 
can be settled by negotiation ours can suffer nothing by 
delay/' The delay continued, without any prominent 
attention to the matter, till 1843. In that year Mr. 
Everett, our minister to England, was instructed that 
" the offer of the forty-ninth parallel of latitude, al- 
though it has once been rejected, may be again ten- 
dered, together with the right of navigating the Colum- 
bia upon equitable ternas. Beyond this the President 
[Mr. Tyler] is not now prepared to go." But nothing 
was done of note or progress.-"^ It was the year follow- 
ing in which Mr. Pakenham as minister plenipotentiary 
on the Oregon question, arrived at Washington, but he 
and Mr. Calhoun, our Secretary of State, only renewed 
the failure of all their predecessors. 

When Mr. Polk gave his inaugural in 1845, negotia- 
tions had been merely prolonged without any visible 
progress. Yet it should be said that a gain was made 
in obtaining claims and the offer of limits, that were 
mutually rejected. In this way the area and scope of 
the controversy became narrower, and it gathered and 
concentrated information, showing to the studious and 
reflecting where the dividing line would probably run. 
It was a growth of public knowledge and of opinion, 
and this was as slow as it was indispensable. The 
President used the occasion to state that "our title 
to the country of the Oregon is clear and unquestion- 
able," and he recommended that the jurisdiction of our 
laws and the benefits of our republican institutions be 
extended over the Americans there. 

Matters then went on quietly till December, and negO' 
1 Senate Document, 489, 1st Session, 29th Congress, 1844. 



AT LAST A TREATY. 287 

tiation kept up a bare vitality through the summer, as the 
correspondence showed, when published. Mr. McLane, 
the American minister to England, was furnished by 
Mr. Buchanan, Secretary of State, with a resume of 
previous negotiations and the views of the administra- 
tion, since he might be able to use opportunities and in- 
fluence the English ministry directly or indirectly in the 
matter. This was in July, 1845. In this communica- 
tion of the Secretary it was made to appear, almost as 
if a discovery, that " the Straits of Fuca, Admiralty 
Inlet and Puget Sound, with their fine harbors and rich 
surrounding soil, are all south of this parallel," — 49°, 
while the country in dispute north of this was disparaged 
as comparatively worthless. Mr. Buchanan discarded 
arbitration, and showed that the United States were 
shut up to compromise on the much repeated offer of 
forty-nine, or to the exclusive claim of the whole of 
Oregon, with " war almost inevitable." 

It was wisely concluded that the judgment of the civil- 
ized world would be adverse to the last resort, if Great 
Britain should yield all south of 49°. The President 
had offered this and free ports to England on Vancou- 
ver, south of it, but with no rights of navigation on the 
Columbia as previously proposed. This last offer, he af- 
firmed, he could not make to any foreign power, and it 
was hoped that the offer now made of free ports on 
Vancouver would offset the withdrawal of that on the 
Columbia. 

Mr. Pakenham refused this last offer without even 
referring it for home advice, and so, a month later, 
the last of August, the President formally withdrew it. 
He was the more ready to do this because, as he said, 
he would not have made so liberal an offer if he had not 



288 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

been entangled and constrained by the offers of his pred- 
ecessors in a government that never dies. In a closing 
extremity he intimated through the secretary to Minister 
McLane, that he would concede the whole of Vancouver, 
but " will not renew his former offer, nor submit any 
other proposition." Then the next step must be taken 
by Great Britain. This was said as late as November 
5, 1845. After this manner the summer passed in fruit- 
less negotiation, except that the range of international 
debate was narrowed, and the points in it sharpened. 
Then, as I have shown in the preceding chapter, " the 
winter of our discontent " opened with the annual 
message of December 2d, on the ardent ultimatum of 
" Fifty-four Forty, or Fight." 

Two things should be here noted. The Vancouver 
question was added as a new item in the struggle. 
While there was a growing tendency to compromise on 
the 49° on the main land, there was the grand island of 
Vancouver, about twice as large as Massachusetts, which 
this line, when continued, would divide. 

As early as 1826, and for the first time, the proposal 
was made by Mr. Huskisson, an English plenipotenti- 
ary, to turn the boundary south from the 49th so much 
as to give all of Vancouver to Great Britain. Then 
the discovery was more and more obvious to the United 
States that Great Britain was but a proxy to the real 
party in interest with whom the American govern- 
ment had to do, — the Hudson Bay Company. This 
was the power back of the throne, a huge chartered and 
continental monopoly, too much for the English minis- 
try as it was for the true English interest. 

Only two days before Lord Aberdeen sent his draft of 
a treaty to minister Pakenham, which was adopted as 



AT LAST A TEE AT Y. 289 

the treaty of 1846, Sir John Pelley, then governor of the 
Hudson Bay Company, had an interview with his lord- 
ship, and pressed his theory of the water boundary. To 
make sure, if possible, the interests of his company, he im- 
mediately wrote out and forwarded his theory and wishes 
to Lord Aberdeen, that they might find place in the 
treaty. He assumes that Vancouver will be taken by 
Great Britain " upon the pi'inciple of mutual conven- 
ience." Thus, of the three possible channels from the 
49th parallel in the Gulf of Georgia south into the 
Straits of Fuca, he proposes the one nearest to the con- 
tinent, with the remark : " The only objection to this is 
giving to the United States the valuable Island of 
Whidbey ; but I do not see how this can be avoided in 
an amicable adjustment." 

As he could hardly run a yawl between the continent 
and this island, and so call that passage " the middle of 
the channel," he reluctantly concedes the loss of Whid- 
bey. So grasping was this huge monopoly, whose next 
step might as reasonably have been to claim the kelp 
and seaweed on the mainland shores. Of course, when 
the machine becomes superior to the manufacturer, and 
the creature to be above the creator, the outlook is ser- 
ious for the commonalty. It finally appeared that only 
a foreign power, and in its immigrating force, could han- 
dle that organized and embodied selfishness of pounds 
sterling. 

It is devoutly to be wished that at this late day in 
monopolies, and early one in the rights of the people, a 
free government might profit by noted historic exam- 
ples. Anthony Crozat, with imperial and solitary sway 
from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, and 
from the Great Gulf to the Great Lakes ; the chartered 
19 



290 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

" Mississippi Bubble," to burst over the same domain in 
the hands of John Law ; this Hudson Bay Company? 
with territory under its control one third larger than all 
li^urope ; the East India Company that wrestled oppres- 
sively with pagans and successfull}^ with Parliament ; 
and half a dozen railroad men who can set a price for 
the farmers on their five hundred million bushels of 
wheat, year by year, and fix the charge on the transfer 
of your trunk from Bangor to San Francisco — these 
illustrative cases should suggest to government to keep 
outside the ring of chartered monopolies, and inside the 
vastly more important ring of the people. 

Sir Richard Pakenham hastily declined the last Amer- 
ican offer, and President Polk as hastily withdrew it, 
and announced that he would not volunteer another. 
Earl Aberdeen expressed to Pakenham his regrets at 
this withdrawal ; indeed he both lamented and condemned 
it ; not that he was ready to accept the offer, but the with- 
drawal left nothing for diplomatic dignity to lean on and 
start from as a basis for continued negotiations. It em- 
barrassed the English government by closing the door 
to compromise, and so forcing it to offer arbitration and 
abide answer, which the presidential message had de- 
clined in advance, or lie swinging in the current of 
events, which in some senses were drifting ominously in 
the direction of war. 

The American Cabinet, alert in those critical and anx- 
ious times, was not insensible to the rumors floating 
across the Atlantic that Great Britain was making un- 
usual warlike preparations. On official inquiry Aber- 
deen softened the anxieties, but did not entirely remove 
them. Just at the close of the year Minister Pakenham 
proposed arbitration, not on the title to the whole of 



AT LAST A TREATY, 291 

• 

Oregon, but for " an equitable division," which as soon 
as decorous, or within six days, was declined. 

So closed the year 1845. To the people under both 
governments it had been an anxious year, and it closed 
gloomily. For while tendencies within the screens of 
diplomacy were toward an amicable settlement by com- 
promise, the citizens at large knew nothing of this posi- 
tively. Later and bold assurances by leading men in 
the government that there would be no war, gave some 
buoyancy to drooping hopes, under the impression that 
these men had some inside views of the future. Before 
the first month of the new year had gone by Pak- 
enham made a qualified renewal of arbitrators to the 
effect that they should first see whether either party 
had, of right, a title to the whole territory, and if not, 
they should then make an equitable division. To this 
Buchanan replied that the plan embodied too much 
temptation to the arbitrators to attempt to please both 
parties by dividing the territory between them. Ho 
added, "the continued conviction of the President that 
the United States hold the best title in existence to the 
whole of this territory," and " that he does not believe 
the territorial rights of this nation to be a proper subject 
for arbitration." 

On the day preceding, February 3, Minister Mc- 
Lane writes hopefully to Secretary Buchanan. He ex- 
presses the opinion that a settlement could be effected 
by compromise, and that he could, if thought best, secure 
from the English Cabinet a reopening of negotiations. 
He thinks he can draw from it an offer similar to the one 
madebyiAIr. Polk, which Mr. Pakenham declined with- 
out reference to his government, that is, the forty-ninth 
parallel, with free ports on Vancouver south of it. And 



292 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

to save both American and English feeling he would 
vary it by offering to continue the privileges of the Hud- 
son Bay Company, and the navigation of the Columbia 
for seven or ten years. There was hope in this dis- 
patch, from the fact that our minister to England had 
been studying English sentiment, and seemed to have 
discovered regrets on their part that the offer in ques- 
tion was rejected, and that its renewal would be wel- 
comed, if Great Britain could do it without compromis- 
ing her dignity. 

Our secretary replied promptly, and encouraged our 
minister to draw from that government the substance of 
the old offer, yet with such variations as to make it in a 
measure new, and so save each government from the hu- 
miliation of an apparent retraction. After Mr. McLane 
had informed Secretary Buchanan that he could not 
honorably draw from Lord Aberdeen an offer unless he 
" could officially know that the proposition would proba- 
bly be acceptable at Washington," the secretary em- 
powered the minister to secure, for substance, the off or 
in question. 

By such careful and tedious and sensitive processes 
did this boundary question drag its slow length along. 
More than once these two great Christian powers verged 
on the edge of battlefields, under the pressure of punc- 
tilios. It is to be hoped that by and by, in the great 
scales of humanity and civilization, national pride and 
etiquette will not outweigh the horrors of war. 

Another month p:issed, and diplomacy was hastened 
and made easier by the serving of notice on Great Brit- 
ain that the joint occupation of Oregon would terminate 
in a twelvemonth. The passage of a resolution to this 
effect in Congress has already been detailed. Its pas- 



AT LAST A TREATY. 293 

sage was a practical declaration for closing the long con- 
troversy, and a broad confidence that it would be closed 
amicably. The vote in Congress and the notice in Eng- 
land were anticipated, and not only created no surprise, 
but were rather welcomed as an anticipated relief. 

The delicate and tentative efforts of our minister to 
draw from the English government the offer mentioned 
were well timed with the approaching notice, as tlie offer 
left England on or very near to the time of the arrival 
of the notice. It was delivered to the Secretary of State 
on the 6th of June, in the draft of a new treaty. It was 
approved by the Senate, and at once matters hastened to 
a finality. The rapidity of action in the last stages of 
the Oregon question is worthy the momentum that it had 
gained in so many years of progress. The compacted 
dates and acts that rounded the grand period may be 
noted here. On the 6th of June the Secretary of State 
received from Mr. Packenham the English draft of a 
new treaty, covering the Oregon question ; on the 10th 
the President submitted it to the Senate for advice ; on 
the 12th the Senate advised its acceptance ; on the 15th 
it was signed by Messrs. Packenham and Buchanan ; on 
the 16th it went to the Senate for approval ; on the 18th 
they ratified it ; on the 2 2d it was sent to London to be 
exchanged for the English ratification ; on the 17th of 
July the ratifications were exchanged at London ; and 
on the 5th of August President Polk proclaimed the 
Oregon Treaty as the law of the land. 

It is of importance to note here that the draft of this 
treaty was entirely, and word for word, from tlie pen of 
the English ministry. This should be remembered when 
we come to consider how obscure and complex and sur- 
prising the interpretation of it was made for twenty-five 



294 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

years afterward, by the English government. And in 
presenting the case finally to the Emperor William for 
arbitration, Mr. Bancroft aptly put the law of contracts 
as laid down by Grotius, that " where the contract is 
obscure the interpretation must be against the party who 
draughted it ; " and by Vattel : " If he v/ho could and 
should express himself plainly and freely has not done 
so, so much the worse for him. He cannot be permitted, 
subsequently, to introduce restrictions which he has not 
expressed." And this is old Roman law, that an obscure 
contract must harm him making it, if any one. 

The worth and force of this treaty, fifty-four years in 
growth, are set forth in its first article, already quoted. 
Two subordinate yet important items should be here 
mentioned : The United States is put under obligation 
to regard all the property and possessory rights of the 
Hudson Bay Company south of the forty-ninth parallel. 
Also, the property of the Puget Sound Agricultural Com- 
pany between the Columbia and the forty-ninth parallel 
is to be confirmed to that Company, and the United 
States may take it on an agreed v^aluation. 

These two items are in reality one, for the Puget 
Sound Agricultural Company was only another form of 
the Hudson Bay Company, working in the line of agri- 
culture, and somewhat of colonization. Surplus funds 
of the fur company were added to two stations or farms 
of the company, and used, under this new form and 
title, by an arrangement of the company, and the new 
"company," so called, was no separate chartered organ- 
ization. It held the relations to the fur company that 
any trading factory had. It paid the company for sup- 
plies received, and charged it with supplies furnished, as 
any branch house in a large firm. When the fur com- 



AT LAST A TREATY. 295 

pany set it up it reserved the " supreme control of the 
Puget Sound Agricultural Company." This was five 
or six years before the treaty was made, and the policy 
served a good end. Two claimants instead of one could 
ask indemnity when the United States came in posses- 
sion. The real Company, the Hudson Bay, filed a claim 
of $3,822,036.37, and the pretender, or quasi company, 
$1,168,000 more, a portion of which claims was allowed 
and paid. In a final settlement, November, 1864, the 
United States paid over to the Hudson Bay Company 
as indemnity $450,000, and to the other $200,000 — 
less than one seventh of the original claim. 

So, therefore, at the last, as at the first, and always 
between, the United States had to do with this great 
monopoly. It was the second, yet greater self of Great 
Britain in North America. In the matters of the New 
World, the Hudson Bay Company was the secret prov- 
idence of England, and it quietly foreordained. That 
magnificent and semicontinental monopoly stood squarely 
in opposition to the growth of British dominions in North 
America, and it did it by vigilantly and despotically pre- 
venting the growth of civilization on the northern half 
of the continent. The plough and saw-mill and anvil 
and the hum of village industries must not frighten the 
beaver. 

It is on the authority of leading English authors that 
these strong statements are made, a few passages from 
which will close this chapter. " To say, then, that the 
trade of this country [England] has been fostered and 
extended by the monopoly enjoyed by the Company is 
exactly contrary to the truth." " If the Company were 
to be destroyed to-morrow, would England be poorer ? 
Would there not rather be demanded from the hands of 



296 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

our own manufacturers ten times the quantity of goods 
which is sent abroad, under the present system, to pur- 
chase skins ? We boast that we make no slaves, none 
at least that can taint our soil, or fret our sight ; but we 
take the child of the forest, whom God has given us to 
civilize, and commit him, bound hand and foot, to the 
most iron of despotisms — a commercial monopoly." 
" Nor, turning from the results of our policy upon the 
native population to its effect upon the settlers and col- 
onists, is there greater cause for congratulation." " The 
system which has made the native a slave is making the 
settler a rebel." It has " driven the best settlers into 
American territory, and left the rest, as it were, packing 
up their trunks for the journey." " The Hudson Bay 
Company has positive interests antagonistic to those 
of an important settlement." " It is a body whose 
history, tendency, traditions, and prospects are equally 
and utterly opposed to the existence within its hunting- 
grounds of an active, wealthy, independent, and flourish- 
ing colony." 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

WHAT DID THE TREATY MEAN? 

The Oregon Treaty was proclaimed as the law of 
the land, but it remained to run the lines. This would 
seem to be an easy work that could be promptly done, 
especially as the most of it was on a parallel of latitude. 
But there was an august delay. Nine years after the 
ratification of the treaty the President, in 1855, rec- 
ommended that the survey be made. The next year 
Congress created a Boundary Commission ; in 1857 
commissioners were appointed to unite with English 
commissioners, and on June 27th of that year they held 
their first meeting. The head commissioners were, on 
the part of the United States, Archibald Campbell, Esq., 
and for the English government " our trusty and well-be- 
loved James Charles Prevost, Esq., a captain in Our 
Koyal Navy," 

The Ashburton Treaty had fixed the boundary on tho 
forty-ninth parallel to the Rocky Mountains, eight hun- 
dred to a thousand miles westward from the Lake of the 
Woods. One half of such a distance would prolong it 
to the Pacific. Thence it was to follow this parallel and 
take, as the treaty worded it, " the middle of the channel 
which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island," 
and follow it through the Straits of Fuca to the ocean. 
At the first meeting of the commissioners it appeared, 
though the reasons are not obvious, that Captain Pre- 



298 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

vost was limited to run and mark only the water line, 
from the Pacific coast to the open ocean — " so much of 
the line of boundary hereinbefore described as is to be 
traced from the point where the forty-ninth parallel of 
north latitude strikes the eastern shore of the Gulf of 
Georgia " — the Pacific coast. Perhaps this was best, 
for sooner or later the final struggle between the two 
governments was to come in dividing that archipelago 
between the mainland and Vancouver's. 

Foot by foot, as I have traced the battle of diplomacy 
from the lost one of the sword at Yorktown, the retiring 
English had disputed the yielding ground. Starting on 
the forty-ninth parallel, to which the English and French 
fathers had agreed in the Treaty of Utrecht, in demark- 
ing Hudson Bay possessions from the ancient Louisiana, 
that boundary had now been prolonged to the Pacific. 
As an astronomical line, stated in astronomical terms in 
the treaty, it was hopelessly above the intermeddling and 
interrogations of state papers, signed "with the highest 
consideration." Astronomy was too strong for diplomacy, 
and so what could not be varied was left unfinished, be- 
tween the mountains and the ocean, and Captain Pre- 
vost must begin his work on the coast, where, in the com- 
plexity of channels, there could be a forced ambiguity 
in the treaty. 

It is a matter of regret that no map or chart was at- 
tached to the treaty of 1846 that would have insured a 
general agreement on its intent. When the treaty of 
1783 was draughted, the joint commissioners, says Ban- 
croft, " in the hope of preventing the possibility of a 
future dispute about boundaries " marked them on Mit- 
chell's map. But in this case neither party had geograph- 
ical knowledge enough of that breadth of archipelago to 



WHAT DID THE TREATY MEANf 299 

furnish a descriptive plan of it. In speaking of this Sir 
Richard Pakenham says : " It is my belief that neither 
Lord Aberdeen, nor Mr. McLane, nor Mr. Buchanan 
possessed at that time a sufficiently accurate knowledge 
of the geography or hydrography of the region in ques- 
tion to enable them to define more accurately what was 
the intended line of boundary than is expressed in the 
words of the treaty." The treaty of 1783, for the same 
reasons, entailed the same difficulties for the Ashburton 
Treaty to settle. Notably the prior treaty placed the 
boundary point on the Lake of the Woods many miles 
out of the way north, and guessed outside of a hundred 
on the sources of the Mississippi, and left the " true St. 
Croix " and " the highlands " on the Maine border for a 
hard search and final compromise in the Ashburton 
Treaty. 

When the British Admiralty sent Vancouver to the 
northwest coast on a voyage of discovery, they instructed 
him to watch carefully for channels and rivers leading 
into the interior of the continent, with the hope that 
water communication might be discovered from the Pa- 
cific to the Lake of the Woods. As we have seen, he 
barely escaped the discovery of the Columbia that Cap- 
tain Gray made soon after. So little was known of 
American geography, even after the Revolution. 

Very few sections in this world could offer so good a 
field for diplomatic finesse in running an undetermined 
boundary as that medley of land and water between the 
continent and Vancouver, being about fifty miles in 
breadth, east and west, and having a length for its seve- 
ral channels of perhaps sixty, north and south. In these 
three thousand square miles there are thirty-nine islands 
that have come under name and description, that range 



300 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

from sixteen miles to less than one fourth of a mile in 
length, and from fifty-four to one half a square mile in 
area. Besides, there are very many unnamed smaller 
ones, and they all have more or less value for grazing, 
agriculture, and timber. Through these islands, a hun- 
dred or so, and in an area about twice as large as Rhode 
Island, there run ten channels southward, but combine 
in three as they empty into the Straits of Fuca ; the 
eastern is the Rosario, the middle one is hardly worth a 
name for our purpose, and the western is the Canal de 
Haro. The scenery here is peculiarly grand and wild 
among bold shores and very deep waters, with mountain 
peaks as high as two thousand feet, and, in one instance, 
twenty-five hundred feet. 

The two channels worthy of account are the Rosario 
and the De Haro, the latter being about one half wider 
and deeper than the former. It has six and a half miles 
maximum width to four of Rosario. Its greatest depth 
is one hundred and eighty-three fathoms to sixty in Ro- 
sario. Under the terms of the treaty the middle or 
President's channel is not entitled to notice. The least 
depth in the Canal de Haro is greater than the greatest 
in Rosario, while its average depths, widths, and volume 
of water are greatly superior. All these facts would 
mark the Canal de Haro as " the channel which separates 
the continent from Vancouver's Island," answering to 
these words of the treaty. 

The marvel is that England should name any other 
than the Haro as separating the continent from Van- 
couver, since, when the treaty was made, none other 
was known to the negotiators in those waters. The 
term, Rosario Straits, was not then on any map — 
English, French, Spanish, or German — as a channel 



WHAT DID THE TREATY MEAN? 301 

between that island and the mainhxnd. In the Royal 
Library of Berlin, near to which the Court of Arbitra- 
tion was held, a library rich in maps and charts, the 
Haro was the only channel named for the region where 
afterward the English rushed to locate the Rosario. 
When the treaty was negotiated, the " Rosario Straits " 
were north of the forty-ninth parallel, and these waters 
did not touch either Vancouver or the continent, and 
the Queen's geographer still located them there in 1848 
— two years after the treaty was made. Afterward 
they appeared where the English could use them for 
their surprising interpretation of the treaty. 

At the time when the treaty was made every map or 
chart shows " Rosario Straits " between Texada and the 
continent, which island is wholly north of forty-nine 
and a half degrees north. Thus the French map of 
Duflot de Mofras of 1844 places it. But the next year 
after the treaty the British Admiralty had new surveys 
made by Captain Kellett, and in their next map, 1849, 
they introduced these straits far below the forty-ninth 
parallel where they could serve their interpretation of 
the treaty. 

But this complexity of islands and channels suits well 
the genius of a diplomacy that seeks an end by indirec- 
tion, and delights, therefore, in curves and sinuosities 
and ambiguities. It will be seen that the liberal word- 
ing of a treaty, calling for a boundary across such re- 
gion, would furnish strong temptation to evasion by 
those who may have come reluctantly to sign it. Had 
there been no Vancouver there would have been no 
question, and the forty-ninth parallel would have car- 
ried the boundary direct into the Pacific. But the 
United States conceded all of Vancouver, south of that 



302 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

parallel, for amity, and did not presume on giving up 
anything else of consequence south of that latitude. 
They conceded it only, and provided for taking the best 
channel that separated it from the continent. The 
main point was to leave Vancouver undivided to Great 
Britain. In 1826 Huskisson, the English plenipoten- 
tiary, proposed to Gallatin, the American minister, 
to run so far south of the forty-ninth parallel on 
Vancouver as to save all that island to Great Britain. 
This was the first appearance of the theory, *and the 
deflection of the line of forty-nine was only to give 
all of that island, and no more, to Great Britain. 
Eminent justice, on this plan, was pleased finally to 
find the main channel to be the one nearest to the con- 
ceded island, thus giving, as was right, all the other 
principal islands south of that parallel to the conceding 
government. 

But there were three channels possible for vessels, 
and between the best, which was near Vancouver, and 
an interior one near the continent, there lay about four 
hundred square miles, in which were several promi- 
nent islands, and many small ones, in land-area about 
one hundred and seventy square miles. The ownership 
and sovereignty of these were involved in the settle- 
ment of the channel question. The most valuable of 
all the islands between the mainland and Vancouver 
was San Juan, one of the above, containing fifty-five 
square miles, and the most of it good grazing land the 
larger part of the year. * 

It was not ominous of speedy and harmonious con- 
clusion of the work of the Boundary Commission, when 
Captain Prevost informed Mr. Campbell that he had 
no authority to run the land line. His commission con- 



WHAT DID THE TREATY MEAN? 303 

lined him to the water line. Over this water part of 
the northwestern boundary the two commissioners con- 
sumed much time and some feeling. They had seven 
official interviews in the fourteen months following the 
first, June 27, 1857, and fourteen letters from each 
passed between October 28, 1857, and July 19, 1859. 
But little was gained by the commissioners in the way 
of settlement, except a knowledge of the ground and of 
the intention of the two parties. Special skill and pro- 
ficiency were shown by Captain Prevost how not to do 
the work. 

Naturally, openly, and as the final arbitration showed, 
justly, Mr. Campbell claimed for the United States the 
Canal de Haro according to the intent of the treaty. 
The depth, breadth, and volume of this marked it as 
the channel from the Gulf of Georgia on the forty-ninth 
parallel to the Straits of Fuca. The facts of nature, 
developed in the hydrographic survey, left no other con- 
clusion. The English advocate made the point that De 
Haro was seldom used by vessels, but Rosario ordinar- 
ily. But it appeared that the war of 1812 broke up all 
trade but English on that coast, and they used the Ro- 
sario as giving them the best access to their trading- 
posts. The Hudson Bay Company boasted that " they 
compelled the Americans one by one to withdraw from 
the contest ; " and it does not appear that an American 
vessel visited those waters after 1810, till Commodore 
Wilkes entered them in 1841. This plea for Rosario 
against De Haro was not only painfully specious but 
provoking to Americans. 

That the De Haro was the channel was the under- 
standing at the time of the negotiation of the treaty. 
Sir Richard Pakenham quotes Mr. McLane, the United 



804 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

States minister to England in the negotiations, as say- 
ing that the " boundary about to be proposed by her 
Majesty's government would ' probably be substantially 
to divide the territory by the extension of the line in the 
parallel of forty-nine degrees to the sea, that is to say, 
to the arm of the sea called Birch's Bay, thence by the 
Canal de Haro and Straits of Fuca to the ocean.' " 
Lord Russell indorses this by quoting its substance in a 
dispatch to Minister Lyons, and adds that Mr. Benton 
used similar language in the Senate, when the treaty 
came under discussion before that body. Mr. Bancroft, 
who was a member of President Polk's Cabinet when 
the treaty was concluded, says in a letter to Mr. Bucha- 
nan, Secretary of State : " It is not probable, however, 
that any claim of this character will be seriously pre- 
ferred by her Britannic Majesty's government to any 
island lying to the eastward of the Canal de Arro.'* 
Elsewhere Mr. Bancroft writes : " Such was the under- 
standing of everybody at the time of consummating the 
treaty in England and at Washington." He says this 
in a letter to Mr. Campbell in 1858. Mr. Buchanan, 
who signed the treaty for the United States, expressly 
mentions in a letter to Mr. McLane, our ambassador to 
England, and on the very day when Mr. Pakenham 
delivered to him the treaty, the Canal de Haro as the 
one intended by the treaty. 

On the other hand, and in his first letter. Captain 
Prevost declares the Rosario Straits to be the channel 
of the treaty. By this claim he throws the four hun- 
dred square miles above mentioned and the important 
islands therein on the English side of the line. Among 
these was the island of San Juan, and occupied by the 
Hudson Bay Company as a sheep ranch, with animals 



WHAT DIB THE TREATY MEANf 305 

selling at eight dollars a head. Albeit io the strug- 
gles to retain these they call them " islets of little or no 
value." 

In his draught of instructions Captain Prevost was 
informed that his first duty, in connection with the 
United States Commissioner, " will be to determine with 
accuracy the point at which the forty-ninth parallel of 
north latitude strikes the eastern shore of the Gulf of 
Georgia, and to mark that point by a substantial monu- 
ment." This point was astronomically and satisfactorily 
fixed by the chief astronomers and surveyors of the joint 
commission. It would be the point on the coast of the 
continent from which the land line of boundary would 
run off east, and the water line west on the forty-ninth 
parallel. Captain Prevost was willing to call the point 
a true and accurately taken one in latitude, and to 
mark the spot by a " substantial monument," but he 
would not consent to call it the initial or starting-point 
of . the water line. No monument was set, and Mr. 
Campbell inferred that the English commissioner was 
under secret instructions not to fix, in that place, the 
eastern end of the water line, and that the English 
government attached considerable importance to this re- 
fusal. He appeared to be willing to fix the starting- 
point of the water boundary fifteen miles to the east- 
ward on a bay. Mr. Campbell presumed that the secret 
theory of the English government was, after various 
delays and difficulties, in determining the intent of the 
word " channel " in the treaty, to gain the consent of 
the United States, in the way of compromise and peace, 
to the interpretation that it meant the entire body of 
water and islands between the continent and the shore 
of Vancouver. Then " the middle of the channel " 
20 



306 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

would be a mathematical line crossing the forty-ninth 
parallel precisely half way between the continent and 
Vancouver. If, therefore, the starting-point of the water 
line had been previously carried inward and easterly 
fifteen miles, it would add to the English half a belt of 
this width. 

In connection with this theory of Mr. Campbell two 
or three considerations should have place and weight. 
The Rosario Channel proposed by Captain Prevost 
would give to England not only all of Vancouver but 
the large archipelago between Rosario and Vancouver. 
The line of compromise and peace proposed by Lord 
Russell — the middle or equidistant channel — would 
also give to England the main island, San Juan. As 
to this island, it was now the splendid sheep ranch 
of the Hudson Bay Company, as already mentioned; 
moreover that company claimed it as corporation prop- 
erty. When, at a later date, the United States troops 
occupied it, the agent of the Company wrote to the 
American commander, " I have the honor to inform 
you that the island of San Juan, on which your camp 
is pitched, is the property and in the occupation of the 
Hudson Bay Company, and to request that you and the 
whole of the party who have landed from the American 
vessels will immediately cease to occupy the same." 

Evidently the English government must save that 
island to the fur company, and some theory of inter- 
pretation of the treaty must be devised to hold it. The 
arrogance of the Company, in already claiming it as 
property, comports with their ordinary high tone in 
England and North America, since the treaty of joint 
occupation, 1818, made such an acquisition of right and 
title impossible for either party. Yet in violation of 



WHAT BID THE TREATY MEANf 307 

the compact of joint occupation, the Crown, in 1849, 
made a grant of Vancouver's Island to this company. 
The grant was recalled two years later. 

The English government insisted that the Oregon 
Treaty must be so construed as to give San Juan to 
Great Britain. Lord Russell thus writes to Lord 
Lyons, the envoy to the United States : " Her Maj- 
esty's government must, under any circumstances, main- 
tain the right of the British Crown to the island of San 
Juan. The interests at stake in connection with the 
retention of that island are too important to admit of 
compromise, and your lordship will consequently bear 
in mind that whatever arrangement as to the boundary 
line is finally arrived at, no settlement of the question 
will be accepted by Her Majesty's government which 
does not provide for the island of San Juan being re- 
served to the British Crown." " Your lordship will ac- 
cordingly propose to the United States government that 
the boundary line shall be the middle channel between 
the continent of America and Vancouver's Island." 

This claim and declaration were preceded by the high 
proclamation of Governor Douglas of Vancouver's Isl- 
and : " The sovereignty of the island of San Juan and 
of the whole of the Haro archipelago has always been 
undeviatingly claimed to be in the Crown of Great Bri- 
tain. Therefore, I, James Douglas, do hereby formally 
and solemnly protest against the occupation of the said 
island, or any part of the said archipelago, by any per- 
son whatsoever, for, or on behalf of any other power, 
hereby protesting and declaring that the sovereignty 
thereof by right now is, and always hath been, in Her 
Majesty, Queen Victoria, and her predecessors, kings of 
Great Britain. Given under my hand and seal," etc. 



308 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

It is evident that the scheme of the English was to 
divide midway between the continent and Vancouver, 
and not on " the middle of the channel which separates 
the continent from Vancouver's Island," and it would 
seem to be evident why Captain Prevost would not mark 
by monument the initial point on the east of the dividing 
line, unless it was to be carried into the continent fifteen 
miles, on an intruding bay. 

The tone of assumption and the spirit of dictation 
shown by the English in this affair are painfully obvious. 
The question was on the import of the phrase " the mid- 
dle of the channel," yet they came to the conferance ar- 
rogating sovereignty over a part of the territory in dis- 
pute, and declaring that " under any circumstances " 
they would maintain that sovereignty, and would accept 
no settlement that did not allow it to them. This left 
no ground for interpreting the treaty, or for argument, 
and the United States could no longer continue the 
conference with self-respect. 

Mr. Cass, our Secretary of State, of course made re- 
ply that " if this declaration is to be insisted on, it must 
terminate the negotiation at its very threshold ; because 
this government can permit itself to enter into no dis- 
cussion with that of Great Britain or any other power, 
except upon terms of perfect equality." And three 
months later : " To declare that in no event will this isl- 
and be conceded to the United States is, in effect, to 
close the discussion. . . . The discussion has been prac- 
tically foreclosed by the declaration of Lord John Rus- 
sell, that it can under no circumstances affect the British 
claim. . . . Since, therefore. Lord John Russell repeats 
with great frankness his original declaration that ' no 
settlement of the question will be accepted by Her Maj- 



WEJT DTD TEE TREATY JfFAy^f 309 

esty's govemmeDt which, does not provide for the island 
of San Juan being reserved to the British Crown/ I am 
directed by the President to state with eqaal frankness 
that the United States will, under all circumstances, main- 
tain their right to the island in controversy, until the 
question of title to it shall be determined by some amic- 
able arrangement between the parties." 

This was not an agreeable term.ination to the work of 
the joint boundary commission, and to diplomacy and 
ministerial correspondence. Of course those Pacidc pio- 
neers, fur men. and settlers of both governments became 
uneasy under the incomprehensible delays. They could 
not see why an agreement could not be executed and an 
agreed boundary line run in the course of twelve years. 
Such delays seemed manufactured rather than an in- 
herent natural outgrowth of difficulties. It was no 
strange thing, therefore, that primitive and natural jus- 
tice wearied of waiting for ministers of state, and that 
the pioneers pushed forward their personal rights and 
interests, as the original party in the affair. 

This is characteristic of Americans who make the laws 
and the crovernment, and was so on this occasion, when 
thev thouijht the import of the treaty very plain. Bor- 
der men are quick to detect any by-play by which the 
laws are made inoperative and rights are postponed or 
sacrificed, and then they are liable to become an irregu- 
lar court, and make short work with the law's delay. 
TTiey did this in the early days of San Francisco as a 
Vigilance Committee, and I found them strongly tempted 
to do the same in Leadville, when an officer reported to 
me two homicides a week for eight months, and the 
courts failed to convict and punish a siugle murderer. 

The territory in dispute was under treaty for joint and 



810 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

equal occupation, and now, after provoking delays of 
many years, uncivil and even belligerent collision was 
almost sure to take place between the settlers of the 
two nationalities, since their rival and mutually chafing 
interests covered the undivided territory through which 
the treaty line was to be run. It was most natural 
that the collision should come on the principal island in 
dispute — San Juan. For on this island twenty-five 
Americans, with their families, were living, and among 
and around them were the servants of the Hudson Bay 
Company, who assumed to be on their own territory, 
made over to them by the English government. This 
was against the spirit and letter of the agreement of 
joint occupation, which forbade any possessory or mo- 
nopolizing rights in the soil to either party. Of this con- 
dition of things and the collisions which were imminent. 
Sir Robert Peel well spoke in the House of Commons : 
" differences which, unless speedily terminated, must 
probably involve both countries in the necessity of an 
appeal to arms." 

It is not pleasant to think how near these two Chris- 
tian nations came, several times, to the terrible struggles 
of war, on this Oregon question. The very air was 
charged with rumors and omens and anxieties, so that 
speeches and opinions, and even sentences, were powers. 
An eminent London merchant wrote about this time to 
a friend in the United States : " After the publication 
of Mr. Webster's speech here yesterday consols improved. 
The stock-jobbers say that the 49° is about right, and 
there can be no difficulty." 

In the territorial legislature of Oregon, 1852-53, that 
government, weary of waiting for more stately and for- 
mal steps, included this island and all the Haro archipel- 



WHAT DID THE TREATY MEAN? 311 

ago in one of its counties. Soon afterward the Hudson 
Bay Company took formal possession of it for a sheep 
ranch. Oregon levied taxes on the property of the Com- 
pany, and payment was refused, when the Oregon sheriff 
sold sheep enough to pay the taxes. So the local con- 
flict opened. Mutual trespasses and recriminations and 
personal conflicts followed and multiplied till 1859, when 
General Harney, Commander of the Department of Ore- 
gon, landed troops on the island, with instructions to 
Captain Pickett to protect Americans there from maraud- 
ing Indians, and from personal violence and pecuniary 
damage to which they were exposed by the agents and 
workmen of the fur company. These American forces 
amounted to four hundred and sixty-one persons, who 
selected a good military position and made it defensible 
to the best of their ability. Meanwhile, in the same isl- 
and, and under two governments, collisions were occur- 
ing in the matter of taxes and impost duties, and in civil 
and criminal cases for the courts. 

In this threatening juncture of affairs, English naval 
forces were gathered near to the island, and in a men- 
acing attitude, to the number of five ships, carrying one 
hundred and sixty-seven guns and one thousand nine 
hundred and forty men. Protests, both civil and mili- 
tary, were made against the occupation of the island 
by the American forces, and at the same time the 
Americans threatened to resist by force any attempted 
landing of English troops. The English commander 
proposed a joint military occupation of San Juan, but 
to this Captain Pickett replied that, " as a matter of 
course, I, being here under orders from my govern- 
ment, cannot allow any joint occupation until so or- 
dered by my commanding general," and should resist 



312 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

any attempt to land English forces. In this direction 
he had the approval of his commander. 

Blood was warm on both sides and liable to flow on 
the most trivial provocation. The spirit of those times 
and the critical poise in affairs may be judged from a 
passage in a report of General Harney to General Scott : 
" The senior officer of three British ships of war threat- 
ened to land an overpowering force upon Captain Pick- 
ett, who nobly replied that whether they landed fifty or 
five thousand men his conduct would not be affected by 
it ; that he would open his fire, and, if compellel, take 
to the woods fighting ; and so satisfied were the British 
officers that such would be his course, they hesitated iu 
putting their threat into execution." 

All this contrasts painfully with the satisfaction and 
confidence and happy augury of Sir Robert Peel, when 
he announced the consummation of the Oregon Treaty 
thirteen years before in the House of Commons. He 
was making his final speech for his retiring ministry : 
" The governments of two great nations, impelled, I be- 
lieve, by the public opinion of each country in favor of 
peace — by that opinion which ought to guide and in- 
fluence statesmen — have, by moderation, by mutual 
compromise, averted the dreadful calamity of war between 
two nations of kindred origin and common language, the 
breaking out of which might have involved the civilized 
world in general conflict. A single year, perhaps a single 
month, of such a war would have been more costly than 
the value of the whole territory that was the object of dis- 
pute. But this evil has been averted consistently with 
perfect honor on the part of the American government, 
and on the part of those who have at length closed, I 
trust, every cause of dissension between the two coun- 



WMAT DID THE TREATY MEAN? 313 

tries. . . . Sir, I do cordially rejoice that, in surrender- 
ing power at the feet of a majority of this House, I have 
the opportunity of giving them the official assurance that 
every cause of quarrel with that great country on the 
other side of the Atlantic is amicably terminated." 

Mr. Campbell, the boundary commissioner for the 
United States, was quite embarrassed by the action of 
General Harney in occupying San Juan, and was made 
anxious for results when he ascertained that the General 
had acted without specific instructions from Washington. 
The President, also, withheld his approval of the com- 
mander in this act, and expressed the hope that he had 
taken possession of the island for the protection of Amer- 
ican citizens and interests alone, and with no reference 
to territorial possession. The General asserted that the 
relative claims of the two governments to the title had 
nothing to do with his occupation of the island. 

In the profound gravity of the crisis, when the two 
great nations might be plunged into war at any moment, 
General Scott was sent to the field of action, and ar- 
rived late in 1859. He went out with instructions to 
avert violent collision between the excited parties on the 
ground, and to bring about joint occupation of the island 
in dispute, till the boundary line could be run. This 
was simply an effort to carry out in good faith the 
conventions of 1818 and 1827, the intent and spirit of 
which rash men on both sides had disregarded. 

The course of General Harney was peculiarly offen- 
sive to the English, but Lord Lyons expressed satis- 
faction in learning that he '* did not act on that occa- 
sion upon any order from the United States govern- 
ment, but entirely on his own responsibility." It was 
thought best, however, to withdraw him from his com- 



314 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

mand in the northwest, and he was assigned to an- 
other post. Some months prior to this, General Scott 
and Governor Douglas of Vancouver and its dependen- 
cies effected an arrangement for the joint occupation of 
San Juan by a hundred armed men of each party. Thus 
the local excitement subsided, and as the boundary com- 
missioners had failed in their work, the Oregon boun- 
dary question reverted to the high officers of the two 
governments : Lord John Russell, the British Foreign 
Secretary of State, Lord Lyons, British Minister at 
Washington, and Lewis Cass, the American Secretary of 
State, and George M. Dallas, the Minister to England. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

THE EMPEROR WILLIAM AND ARBITRATION. 

After elaborate and exhaustive correspondence, end- 
ing in failure to interpret the treaty of 1846 and agree 
on a boundary, Minister Lyons wrote to Secretary Cass, 
that " the argument on both sides being nearly ex- 
hausted, and neither party having succeeded in produc- 
ing conviction on the other, the question can only be 
settled by arbitration." Lord Lyons proposed the King 
of the Netherlands, or of Sweden and Norway, or the 
President of the Federal Council of Switzerland, as the 
arbiter. This was December 10, I860. 

This English proposal was declined by the govern- 
ment of the United States, and for various reasons that 
need not here be spread out in detail. For ten years 
more this vexing question had fitful slumbers and spas- 
modic wakings. Discussions in Congress and Parlia- 
ment, conferences formal and informal, and diplomatic 
notes between high officials, extended the painful length 
of the struggle for another decade. The whole was 
narrowed to a finality, that apparently waited for only 
one move more. All hearts were at length lightened 
and all honor insured, when. May 8, 1871, the question 
was given for arbitration and finality, beyond appeal, to 
his Majesty the Emperor of Germany. 

The question between the two nations was at last very 
single and separate, and exceedingly earnest. The is- 



316 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

sue, in its final shape, was between two channels. Eng- 
land claimed the Rosario, near the continent, and the 
United States claimed the De Haro, near Vancouver ; 
and the treaty of arbitration stipulated that the Em- 
peror William " shall decide thereupon finally and with- 
out appeal, which of these claims is most in accordance 
with the true interpretation of the treaty of June 15, 
1846." That treaty called for "the middle of the 
channel which separates the Continent from Vancouver 
Island." 

It will be noticed that this treaty had waited twenty- 
five years for its execution, under the finesse and delays 
which a possible ambiguity encouraged. The English 
hesitation over the final move in the game is not strange. 
Two hundred years, almost exactly, from the grant of 
the charter to the Hudson Bay Company by Charles II. 
in 1670, that huge monopoly of half a continent had 
been mo vino; westward with the irresistible and orrind- 
ing force of a glacier. It must stop on the Pacific, and 
in the end the narrow question arose : What islands 
must be yielded and what ones may be held? From 
claims for areas like England on the mainland, they 
had come down to islands and acres. 

Around the conclusion, when it came, there was the 
gathering of the august and solemn and sad. The two 
leadino^ nations of the world held their own wills in 
abeyance, and asked a third to put them under order 
and beyond appeal. There was a sublime humiliation 
in the act. For nearly a century these two nations had 
been in controversy over boundary questions. The 
younger was born into it and was not yet free. To 
crown the struggle of a hundred years, and thus sum up 
and conclude the work of three generiitioiis, and to do 



THE EMPEROR WILLIAM AND ARBITRATION. 317 

it peacefully, ^s an act for the gravest reflections and the 
most profound joy. 

The final interpretation and execution of the treaty 
of 1846 had much of the sad to overshadow it. Twenty- 
five years had waited for that end. Sixteen members 
of the British Cabinet had framed it and offered it to 
the United States. Sir Robert Peel, Lord Aberdeen, 
and all that Cabinet, save one, were now dead. Of the 
American high officials who shared in its construction 
and adoption, the President and Vice-President, and 
Minister to England, and Secretary of State, and all the 
Cabinet, save one, were now gone. Upon the only sur- 
vivor, the Honorable George Bancroft, historian, diplom- 
atist, and scholar, and, when the treaty was formed. 
Secretary of the Kavy, it was devolved to present the 
American case to the Emperor. 

We note here what is too often forgotten in honoring 
single persons for single achievements. No one is great 
by himself. Greatness is an accumulation to which 
many contribute and one crowns it. In the total and 
final honor, therefore, the last actor is entitled to only 
a proportion, an undivided and indefinite moiety. Since 
1783 many of the best statesmen and patriots in the 
United States had been preparing the way and the 
material for Mr. Bancroft's successful and concluding 
work. As Secretary of the Navy he was of the Cabinet 
of 1846 that advised the treaty, and was now the only 
one left to expound it to the German Emperor. 

This he did in an exhaustive and admirable Memo- 
rial of one hundred and twenty octavo pages. After 
referring, in its graceful and beautiful exordium, to these 
changes which death had wrought in the ranks of the 
original laborers on the treaty, he says : — 



318 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

" I alone remain, and after finishing the three score 
years and ten that are the days of our years, am se- 
lected by my country to uphold its rights. Six times the 
United States had received the offer of arbitration on 
their northwestern boundary, and six times had refused 
to refer a point whei'e the importance was so great and 
the right so clear. But when consent was obtained to 
bring the question before your Majesty, my country 
resolved to change its policy, and in the heart of Europe, 
before a tribunal from which no judgment but a just one 
can emanate, to explain the solid foundation of our de- 
mand, and the principles of moderation and justice by 
which we have been governed.'* 

Like all great works the process in arbitration was 
very simple. Each party submitted its case in print, 
with all documents and maps attached that were thought 
to be necessary. Then each party received the Memo- 
rial of the other, and put in a printed reply to it, so that 
each furnished two papers to the Emperor. These four 
papers his Majesty laid before three eminent jurists, 
also experts in such matters, on which they bestowed 
separate attention and gave separate opinion. The Em- 
peror gave to the subject his personal attention, and 
most careful study and deliberation. 

After a full and faithful examination of the case the 
Emperer decreed this award : " Most in accordance with 
the true interpretations of the treaty concluded on the 
15th of June, 1846, between the Governments of Her 
Britannic Majesty and of the United States of America, 
is the claim of the Government of the United States, that 
the boundary line between the territories of Her Bri- 
tannic Majesty and the United States should be drawn 
through the Haro Channel. Authenticated by our auto- 



'THE EMPEROR WILLIAM AND ARBITRATION. 319 

graph signature, and the impression of the Iniperial 
Great Seal. Given at Berlin, October the 21st, 1872." 

So the end came, and an end to many things. Two 
great nations had divided North America between them 
and fixed the line of demarkation. For ninety years 
they had been in conference to put a treaty line of di- 
vision on paper, and now they had marked it on the 
earth by the stars and an immutable ocean current. The 
end of boundary questions between the two nations was 
reached. Diplomacy, geography, anxieties, rivalries, 
and almost wars, were no more. Land and water, 
stretching across the continent from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific, were divided between the two governments. 

From the Treaty of Paris, 1783, to the arbitration at 
Berlin, 1872, it would be quite difficult to state the num- 
ber of diplomatic conferences between the two nations 
on this boundary question. Never before, apparently, 
or at other times, had the English language been so 
tested to embody agreements in inevitable words. What, 
in the last instance, the parties were four years in writ- 
ing, they were twenty-six years in interpreting, and then 
they failed. But the march of rival empires across the 
New World came to an end at Berlin, when the Em- 
peror William put his autograph to a few simple sen- 
tences of interpretation, and established a boundary. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

This book is designed to be a history of the con- 
cession of Oregon, and not a history of Oregon. Yet 
it would seem to be incomplete if the tragic end of the 
man who saved Oregon to the United States were not 
outlined. It is an exceedingly painful record in human 
annals, and shows how much the benighted natives 
there needed the religion of " good will toward men." 

Among the chapters of human tragedies this is one 
of the most tragic. Tlie persons killed were the mis- 
sionaries of Christ ; they who killed them were the poor 
Indians whom they were instructing and lifting into the 
light and love and daily life of God's children ; many 
who looked on, or stood afar off, knowing it and not in- 
terfering, were white people, and some of them the of- 
ficial servants of the church. The massacre ran riot 
through eight days, and Dr. Marcus Whitman and wife, 
of the American Board, and thirteen or more associates, 
were savagely killed on the 29th of November, 1847, 
and days following. It was the bloody baptism of 
Oregon, by the like of which the most of the Amer- 
ican States have come to form the Union. 

Lacking only the slow torture of hacking and flay- 
ing and burning, it stands among the most atrocious of 
Indian atrocities. The details, covering the dead and 
scarcely less unfortunate fifty captives, I will not relate. 



TEE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 321 

though spread out with painful and revolting minute- 
ness before me. As I write the history of the massacre, 
and not a drama of it, I will not show the poor, dumb 
wounds, and the rent and bloody garments, as at Caesar's 
funeral. 

To understand this murderous assault on a Christian 
mission, and carry a well-balanced judgment about it, 
as a part of the history of Oregon, certain facts must be 
taken into account, especially concerning the two pol- 
icies of the English and the Americans in regard to 
the Indian country. The former, under the Hudson 
Bay Company, desired to hold back the wilderness for 
a game preserve, and use it only for the production of 
furs. They, therefore, kept out of it the civilized grains 
and grasses, the plow and hoe, and water-wheel. All 
who came to settle the country and to develop it, and 
civilize the Indians, the Company kept back. No 
Europeans were admitted excepting their own servants. 
All schools for the Indians were opposed, and almost 
all Christian missions, except the Roman Catholic. 
These statements apply to the whole domain of that 
Company : the chartered part of it took in all the re- 
gion whose waters drain into Hudson Bay, and the 
leased part took in all north and west of this to the 
Arctic and Pacific. They were hoping and planning 
for the valley of the Oregon. So their purpose was to 
hold forever for steel-traps an area one third larger 
than all Europe. This pleased the Indian, specially 
when intermarriage and an accommodated life met him 
half way. 

On the other hand, the Americans wished to build 
the United States on Indian lands. The factory dam 
must take the place of the beaver dam ; and wheat fields 
21 



322 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

the place of buffalo ranges ; mansions, of wigwams. 
This displeased the Indians, as they lost their lands and 
game and the pleasures of a wild life. One policy was 
to propagate wilderness and beaver, and Indians and 
half-breeds to catch them ; the other, civilization in its 
highest type and thrift. No two policies could come 
more in contradiction, one fostering all the tastes and 
habits of the natives, and the other demanding a total 
change in the modes and grade of life. Hence the fact 
— so slow to be understood, coined into a reproachful 
criticism on the United States — that the English get 
along much better than the Americans with the In- 
dians. 

The English had their own way from 1670, when the 
fur company was chartered, till 1834, when they met 
our pioneer missionaries in the valley of the Columbia. 
As our missions meant plows and highways and fac- 
tories, it meant less fur, and corn instead, and school 
books. From that date their jealousy of the Americans 
took a more active and violent form. At this time the 
Company held Oregon almost absolutely. No American 
interest could thrive there, and indeed the traders and 
trappers of the Company had come over the mountains 
and were holding the head waters of the Yellowstone 
and Missouri. Meanwhile the two nations were, by 
treaty, to have a joint occupation of Oregon. When 
the Company pleaded for a renewal of charter, one 
strong plea was that they had kept back the Ameri- 
cans. It would take a volume to tell how thoroughly 
they had done this. 

At the time of the massacre the Indians had obtained 
from some source the conviction that the Americans 
wanted their lauds, while the English did not. Mor&- 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 323 

over, they felt that the Americans wished to change the 
entire life of the Indian — his religious and civil life, 
and pursuits and pleasures, while the English wished 
only for fur, when a civilized Indian would be a hinder- 
ance. So it came to pass that the English had the 
territory and the Indians on their side when Americans 
began in 1834 to settle in Oregon. Diplomacy and 
trade, fraud and bloody violence, were used to keep 
them back, while the Company sought to hold Oregon 
by bringing in colonies from the Red Kiver country. 
This aroused Dr. Whitman to that wonderful ride, al- 
ready described, and he brought back to the Columbia 
875 immigrants, with 200 wagons and 1,300 head of 
cattle, in 1843. The two policies now grappled in a 
final struggle. On the one hand it was beaver and In- 
dians and wilderness for a huge corporation and so 
many pounds sterling dividends ; on the other it was set- 
tlements, domestic animals, civilization, national wealth. 
The struggle was natural, as begun in the seventeenth 
century, the result inevitable, as ended in the nineteenth 
century. 

The Oregon Treaty of 1846, which conceded the 
primitive American claim up to the forty-ninth parallel, 
brought disappointment and anger to the Hudson Bay 
Company. It left them as foreigners on the American 
side of the boundary, and with stipulations that they 
must leave. Their plans were a failure, as civilization 
had conquered the wilderness, and a State called Ore- 
gon was soon to enter the Union. Then, what was done 
to settle it would stimulate the settlement of the British 
Provinces over the line, and the fur trade must give 
way to a broad international commerce outside of their 
charter. The Canadian Pacific Eailroad of to-day is 



324 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

confirmation of their well founded, yet poorly under- 
stood anticipations and fears. The thoughtful could 
foresee that the Hudson Bay Company must close its 
affairs. And American enterprise, pioneered by Ameri- 
can missionaries, had done it. 

The Oregon Treaty was proclaimed August 5, 1846. 
Three or four months would carry the news of their 
defeat up and down the Columbia. A year more inter- 
vened while they were removing and preparing to com- 
plete the transfer to their own proper limits, when the 
massacre took place. 

Must we think it was planned by intelligent white 
people ? Not necessarily. The general causes have 
been stated, which are enough to produce it, if Indian 
nature be taken into the account. He sympathized in 
this case with the fur- trader in his disappointment, and 
made it his own ; also, he feared, and with the best of 
reasons, that the Americans would take his land. From 
colonial times such a condition of things has been fol- 
lowed by Indian raids. Every other statf, as well as 
Oregon and Kentucky, has its " dark and bloody 
ground." It is true the Spanish, and French, and 
English, and Americans have each in turn used the 
Indians to destroy their enemies. Many American 
traders and trappers in the Indian country had been 
killed through the influence of the Hudson Bay men, 
though not perhaps by plot and contract. With the 
rivahy, monopoly, and bloody hostility of that company 
before they lost the Oregon country by treaty, the scant 
civilization of the border is enough to account for the 
massacre. 

For twenty-five years and more after the Revolution, 
our emigrant border was made a reproach to civiliza- 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 325 

tion by the Indian raids that embittered Englishmen 
stimulated. Washington had painfully good reasons for 
writing this passage to Jay in August, 1794, "There 
does not remain a doubt in the mind of any well-in- 
formed person in this country, not shut against convic- 
tion, that all the difficulties we encounter with the In- 
dians, their hostilities, the murders of helpless women 
and innocent children along our frontiers, result from 
the conduct of the agents of Great Britain in this coun- 
try." 

But the history of one period must not be reedited 
as the history of a succeeding generation. Indian mas- 
sacres have resulted from a variety of causes, and in 
the equitable writing of history this fact must be re- 
garded. With the Indians, the powers of the physician 
and of the " medicine man," were conjoined under a 
thick veil of superstition. Such beliefs as come in this 
guise expose the " untutored mind " to the wildest fa- 
naticism. In some instances an epidemic has visited a 
tribe, and its victims are beyond the saving power of 
the '•'medicine man." His inability to cure exposes 
him to death ; he is given a test case, and under fail- 
ure to heal he has sometimes been stoned or pounded to 
death. 

This superstition in the Indian mind has been at 
times used as a great power in controlling him. In his 
" Astoria " Irving gives an illustration. McDougal, of 
Astor's company, who treacherously sold out Astoria 
to the English traders, found much difficulty in pro- 
tecting his infant enterprise against tlie Indians. He 
showed them a small vial, and threatened to uncork it 
and sweep them all off with the small-pox that it con- 
tained, if they gave him more trouble. The chiefs, in 



326 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

alarm and horror, begged him to spare them, and they 
made all necessary promises.^ 

A case more in point is given by the Rev. Jedidiah 
Morse, D. D. In speaking of the L'Arbre Croche In- 
dians on Lake Michigan, he says : " They are afraid to 
have priests come among them, because it happened 
immediately after one had visited them, about the year 
1799, that the small-pox was introduced among them 
from Canada, and carried off nearly half their number. 
They were made to believe, by the medicine men, that 
the Great Spirit " was angry with them for receiving 
this priest and his instructions, and that this fatal dis- 
ease was sent among them to punish them for the of- 
fense." '' 

In the tenth chapter of this history a fact is stated, 
showing the amusing way in which a Hudson Bay 
officer worked on the superstition of the poor natives, 
and governed them by the combination of a music box, 
magic lantern, and galvanic battery. This mysterious 
power of the white man — and they put the power of 
medicine in the same class — the Indians connected, su- 
perstitiously, with divine and malignant spirits, and they 
feared and hated the white accent. 

In defense against the suggestion of some, that the 
Indians were instigated to kill the missionaries because 
they were Protestant heretics, the Rev. J. B. A. Brou- 
illet, Vicar-General, makes this statement : " The mas- 
sacre at Waiilatpu has not been committed by the In- 
dians in hatred of heretics. If Americans only have 
been killed, it is only because the war had been de- 

1 Chap. xii. p. 125. 

2 Report to the Secretary of War, 1820, on the Condition of the In- 
dians. Appendix, p. 24. 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 327 

clared against the Americans only, and not against for- 
eigners, and it was in their quality as American citizens, 
and not as Protestants, that the Indians killed them."-^ 

The Vicar would declare that they were killed as in- 
truders, and the general impression among the Indians, 
that the Americans designed to possess the country, 
stimulated the act. To this agrees the statement of the 
Honorable Elwood Evans : " The history of the agency 
of Protestant missions in encouraging American settle- 
ment — the advent of settlers — the uniform first visit 
to the Whitman station — the treaty of 1846, which de- 
cided that the days of the occupancy, by the Company, 
of the territory were numbered, and that they had been 
baffled in getting Columbia River for the line — explain 
the causes of chagrin of the Company. The policy of 
the Company, pursued everywhere, of making the In- 
dian subservient in time of peace, auxiliary in event 
of war, finishes the matter. There is no necessity to 
charge that the Indians who killed the inmat^ of 
Waiilatpu, on tlie specified occasion, were directly in- 
cited to that act." ^ 

White encroachments had been a fruitful cause of 
Indian massacres, from Massachusetts Bay westward ; 
it remains still a question whether it was mainly, par- 
tially, or not all the cause in this case. Other and 
strong causes ask for a consideration. 

In 1836 a Cayuse chief lost three of his children by 
fever in a mission school. Other pupils sickened and 
died, which "created a prejudice against the school 
among the Indians, which it was not easy to overcome." 

The American Board, in their Report for 1848, say : 

1 Thirty-Fifth Congress, 1859. House Document Ko. 38, p. 51. 

2 Evans's History, chap. xix. 



328 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

" The immediate occasion of this outbreak of savage 
violence may probably be found in the prevailing sick- 
ness among the Indians." 

The latest marked judgment on this most sad tragedy 
is, that " Probably the immediate cause was that im- 
migrants brought the measles and other diseases into the 
country, which the Indians caught, and which, greatly 
aggravated by their imprudence, carried off a large 
number of them. Some pretended that Dr. Whitman 
was giving them poison, while others expressed their 
unaibated confidence in him. To test the case it is said 
that three persons, who were sick, were selected, and he 
was asked to give them some medicine. Having done 
so, it is also said they all died, and that this so incensed 
the Indians that they began the work of death immedi- 
ately." ^ 

Studious and candid men have carefully weighed the 
mixed evidence as to the complicity of white men in the 
affair, but with no unanimous conclusion. After this 
lapse of time, and with the testimony ijltered out of per- 
sonal feelings and local pre-judgments, a change of venue 
to the extreme East may have advantages. Certainly 
these general facts following will be allowed all the 
weight to which they are entitled. 

The rival nations held widely different policies — wil- 
derness and civilization. The Indians made a tolerable 
comparison of the two, and had a decided preference for 
wilderness and its advocates. They recognized the im- 
ported diseases of white men, and were very superstitious 
as to their causes and cures. Disease and the healing 
art, and their connection with good and evil spirits, were 

1 History of Indian Missions on the Pacific Coast. By Rev. Myron 
Eells, 1882, pp. 21, 53, 54. 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 329 

SO blended in their religion as to make them susceptible 
of the most extravagant fanaticism. Therefore, the en- 
tangling circumstances of the Indians on the Columbia, 
under two rival peoples and conflicting policies, and 
their general character as uncivilized and superstitious, 
will be taken into account in assigning the causes of the 
Whitman Massacre. 



CHAPTER XXXn. 

THE OREGON OF TO-DAY. 

It remains to give, in summary, the condition of the 
country whose concession to the United States has now 
been outlined. Properly and comprehensively this coun- 
try was Oregon, and Washington and Idaho Territories 
The three civil sections constitute a vast block in the 
American domain, with British Columbia ou the north, 
Montana and Dakota on the east, Utah, Nevada, and Cal- 
ifornia on the south, and the Pacific on the west. The 
area is 251,562 square miles — more than double that of 
Great Britain and Ireland, and thirty-two times the size 
of Massachusetts, whose citizen founded our claim to it 
in the discovery of its great river. Their total popula- 
tion was about 280,000, by the late census, of which Or- 
egon had about 175,000. The three sections have, by 
nature and development, many characteristics in com- 
mon, and as settlement and improvement go on, they 
will show increasing similarity, and the same general at- 
tractions to immigrants. 

This region, the original Oregon of the treaty of 1846, 
is larger than three New Englands by the excess of six 
states like Massachusetts, and in most respects for human 
homes and national wealth, it is naturally superior to 
New England. In climate, soil, and mineral, both prec- 
ious and practical, it leads promptly. In cereals, meats, 
fish, and vegetables, it is also naturally the leader of New 



THE OREGON OF TO-DAY. 331 

England, as its products and exports are steadily show- 
ing. 

Its facilities for foreign commerce may not, at first, 
seem so favorable, from its westward outlook ; but it is 
nearer, by the breadth of a continent, to the great mar- 
ket of the old East, while railways are treating water- 
commerce quite cavalierly, and shortening space and 
time in the exchange of goods. At Portland, Oregon, 
one in the Chinese, Australian, and general Pacific trade, 
is 10,000 miles nearer to his Asiatic markets than he 
would be at New York. 

Had the same energy worked for two centuries on 
our northwest that has been expended on our north- 
east, the contrast between the two sections v/ould now be 
extremely marked jn favor of the former. Immigration 
and years only are wanting to show how highly nature 
has favored the country in question. The wide range 
of the Oregon block, about four hundred and seventy- 
five miles square, furnishes a great variety of natural 
qualities in its mingled mountains and valleys and prai- 
ries, and so a wide range in resources for human use 
and enjoyment. Probably few sections of the same area 
in the world bring the grand and sublime in mountain 
scenery so near to vast and rich prairie lawns and far- 
reaching slopes which invite to combined rural and city 
life. 

The surprising climate of this section. will show that 
no natural products can be denied it that may be else- 
where found in the United States farther north than the 
northern latitude of Virginia. For, the line of average 
lieat or cold which passes through northern Virginia runs 
northerly and westerly by Pittsburg ; forty miles 
south of Lake Erie, and sixty south of Chicago ; a little 



332 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

north of Rock Island into Iowa ; through southwestern 
Minnesota into Dakota ; thence northwest through the 
upper and eastern corner of Montana, and about sixty 
miles over the line into British territory ; thence by a 
great curve cutting northwestern Montana and the ex- 
treme north of Idaho ; and, continuing midway and north- 
erly, it passes through Washington Territory into Brit- 
ish Columbia, and leaves the continent about two hun- 
dred miles north of the northern boundary of the United 
States. Along this line the mean or average annual 
temperature is fifty degrees, and sections cut by it have 
the average heat and cold of northern Virginia. It 
passes through the great wheat belt of North America. 
Other things being equal, therefore, the grains and fruits 
and vegetables which may be raised on this line in Vir- 
ginia, or Ohio, or Illinois, or Iowa, may be raised in 
Dakota and Montana and Washington. 

As to Oregon, it is left wholly on the south of this 
line. Says Hugh Small, in his " Oregon and Her Re- 
sources," — *' There is scarcely a grain, fruit, vegetable, 
grass, tree, plant, or flower, that grows in the United 
States, or in Europe, but some portions of the soil of 
Oregon will raise to perfection, with fair cultivation." 
The authority for this statement of climate is of 1870, 
and is based on " Blorlgett's Tables." It may be added 
that in mountain elevations, one thousand feet in height 
are equal to three degrees of northing in latitude. 

This fact as to the line of average temperature will 
prepare the way for other facts that otherwise might 
seem incredible. As a rule in both Oregon and Wash- 
ington stock does well through the year in the open air, 
foraging on the abundant natural pasturage. The bunch 
grass matures in July, and is hayed by the sun uncut. 



THE OREGON OF TO-DAT. 333 

Horses and sheep may be trusted to it for good winter- 
ing, while it is good policy to provide some hay and shel- 
ter for horned cattle. The snow is light, and in some 
of the counties in Oregon it has not covered the ground 
for three consecutive days for a score of years. 

The one third of Oregon west of the Cascade Moun- 
tains has a much milder climate and more productive 
soil than the eastern two thirds, as it has the warmth and 
rains and fogs thrown on it by the Pacific. On the 
coast the rainfall is about sixty-seven inches ; in the 
Willamette valley about fifty ; in the Columbia valley 
east of the Cascades about twenty ; and in the great basin 
of the southeast, including the famous Lava Beds of the 
Modoc war, an average of twelve inches. In eastern 
Oregon much dependence must be placed on irrigation 
for aofriculture. 

The warmth of the coast belt is seen in the fact that 
the Columbia, as far up as the mouth of the Willamette, 
one hundred miles, and that river itself, have shown no 
ice thicker than window glass since 1862. The mouth 
of the Willamette is about two hundred miles farther 
north than Boston. Alexander Rattray, surgeon to 
the English navy at Esquimalt, Vancouver's Island, 
1860-61, reports that " snow fell on twelve days only, 
. . . and the thermometer fell only eleven times below 
freezing during the year." ^ 

1 Surgeon Rattray gives the following table, made by himself, 
1860-61: — 

Place. Latitude. P*"^ ^^"^^ 

temperature. 

Victoria, Vancouver's Island. 48^24' 51.77° 

New York. 40o23' 51.58° 

Halifax. 44°39' 40.08° 

Quebec. 46048' 41.85° 

Montreal. 45°31'' 45.76° 

Toronto. 43°40' 44.81° 



334 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

The causes of this warm temperature, four and five 
hundred miles farther north than New York, are two. 
About seventy per cent, of the winds on that coast are 
from the southwest, and carry the heat from the tropics 
far inland, even to Dakota. Then the " black stream " 
— Kuro-siwo — starting off southeastern Asia, passes 
up by the Asiatic coast, and, dividing on the Aleutian 
Archipelago, the eastern half is forced down the Alaskan 
and northwest coast, carrying a large body of torrid 
water, which makes its warmth felt far into the interior. 
This warming force may be estimated somewhat by the 
fact that when fully formed off the coast of China and 
Japan this stream is four hundred miles wide, with a 
flow of four miles an hour in sections of it. 

An illustrative fact may be here introduced from Eu- 
rope, made by the effects of the Gulf Stream. Ham- 
merfest, in Norway, is in latitude seventy-one, yet the 
warm waters of the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic have 
such an effect as to keep its harbor free from ice. That 
harbor, though 1,950 miles farther north than Boston, 
has never been known to be closed by ice. Also, on 
the Alaskan coast, the force of this torrid current is so 
great that at Sitka, a thousand miles farther north than 
Bostonj^ice cannot be found and stored for summer use, 
the average winter cold being two degrees above freez- 
ing.^ Of the ability of a warm ocean stream to carry its 
heat, despite the cold of the ocean through which it 
flows, Professor Bache makes the statement that " at the 
very bottom of the Gulf Stream, when its waters at the 
surface were 80° in temperature, the instruments of 

iHere it will be noticed that while Victoria, over against the northern 
portion of Washington, is 556 miles farther north than New York city, 
its average warmth for a year is greater than at New York. . 



THE OREGON OF TO-DAY. 335 

the Coast Survey recorded a temperature as low as 35° 
Fahrenheit." 

Sovereignty and organized government in Oregon 
were assumed by the American settlers in 1843. This 
was in anticipation of the great immigration of eight 
hundred and seventy -five persons under Dr. Whitman in 
the autumn. That overwhelming number, strengthening 
the government born of exigencies under natural and 
local rights, practically closed the question of possession, 
so long in dispute, for the United States, which became 
settled by treaty three years later. 

A territorial government was granted in 1849, cover- 
ing all of the original Oregon. In 1859 Oregon became 
a state in the Union, with its present limits. This left 
Washington, including Idaho then, under the territorial 
government, and so it remained till 1863, when Idaho 
received a government of its own. 

The population of Oregon in 1850 was 13,294; in 
1860, 52,465 ; in 1870, 90,923 ; and the census of 1880 
gives it as 174,767. In the increase of population by 
immigration Oregon has not grown according to its 
merits and natural desirableness. Several causes con- 
spired to this result. Except Alaska, it has been the 
most distant and inaccessible section of the Union. Prior 
to the opening of the Union and Central Pacific Rail- 
road, it was three months off by land and very much 
more by Cape Horn, and tedious of access by the Isth- 
mus. When emigrants could finally go by rail to San 
Francisco, a staging of four hundred miles, or steaming 
of anything but pacific waters offered a serious barrier, 
while the gold fields of California were more attractive 
than the slower but surer industries of Oregon. 

Moreover, the productions of that distant region, how- 



336 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

ever abundant, had but little commercial value, while 
markets were inaccessible. It was in the condition of 
the Middle States, before government roads and canals 
and railways offered purchasers to their burdens of prod- 
uce, and wheat decayed in the stacks because it would 
not pay to haul and sell it for twenty-five cents a bushel. 
The through opening of the Northern Pacific Railroad 
will recreate Oregon, as earlier creative processes once 
came in upon the unfinished world, when it stood " out 
of the water and in the water," awkwardly waiting to be 
finished. 

The agricultural products of Oregon have been named, 
but special mention should be made of its wheat crop. 
This is the leading staple, and is noted for its unusual 
weight, being often from five to nine pounds above the 
standard weight of sixty pounds to the bushel. Small 
gives the average for fair farming in the Willamette val- 
ley at thirty busheis to the acre, which is double the av- 
erage for the United States. The harvest of 1881 gave 
a surplus for the general market of 10,000,000 of bush- 
els, or 300,000 tons. Of this the region east of the 
Cascades produced 120,000 tons, and western Oregon 
and Washington the rest. The grains following wheat 
in quantity of product are oats, barley, corn, rye, and 
buckwheat, and in very satisfactory yield. The total 
product of the six has risen from about two millions of 
bushels in 1860 to about thirteen millions in 1880. 

The amount of arable land will for a long time be a 
question of local option with the farmer of energy and 
thrift. Vast valleys stand assigned of nature to the 
plow, as truly as the unlimited wheat fields of Minne- 
sota and Dakota. Leading among these is the Willa- 
mette, with its 5,000,000 of acres ; then the Umpqua, one 



THE OREGON OF TO-DAY, 837 

half as large ; the Rogue River valley, a little smaller ; 
the Umatilla ; the Grande Ronde, about 275,000 acres; 
the Walla Walla, Klamath, John Day, Powder, Jordan, 
Palonse, Yakima, Spokan, and others. By the census 
of 1880 Oregon showed 16,217 farms, and their products 
are tabled at a casli value of $13,234,548. The stable 
wealth of Oregon shows one index in the estimated worth 
of these farms at $56,908,575. 

Writers of compends and travelling observers speak 
of sections of our northwest as arid plains, desert region, 
lava beds, sage land, and otherwise condemned land. 
The man who says this, as well as the land of which it 
is said, must be regarded in any faithful statement about 
that country. The Swede, the Swiss, and the New 
Englander might look on the land most favorably, as 
also the man of will and work from any nationality or 
state. 

But from our earliest geographical childhood the Great 
American Desert has been contracting and retreating. 
In 1806 Lieutenant Pike, in government explorations, 
swept over the prairies from St. Paul and the heads of 
the Mississippi to Colorado, and reported those magnifi- 
cent plains as a desert barrier placed by Providence to 
restrain the American people from a thin diffusion and 
ruin! In 1819 Lieutenant Long, in similar service, 
crowded the " desert " into the country west of the 
meridian of Omaha, and made the region between it and 
the Rocky Mountains unfit for cultivation. 

In the memorable Congressional debates in 1842, Mc- 
Duffie had ascertained " that seven hundred miles this 
side of the Rocky Mountains is uninhabitable," and only 
a " tunnel through mountains five or six hundred miles 
in extent " would put us into Oregon. For agricultural 
22 



838 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

purposes he would not " give a pinch of snuff for the 
whole territory." 

Now, it would be difficult to find more magnificent 
farm lands than those in western Oregon and Washing- 
ton, and the " desert " is shrinking on both sides before 
energetic settlers. On the Government Map of 1882, 
already referred to, " the Great American Desert " is 
located to the west of Salt Lake and adjoining it. It 
appears like a body crowded and cornered into a very 
irregular shape, with an area, possibly, one third larger 
than Rhode Island. In the days of our youth it must 
have occupied thousands of square miles just over the 
Missouri. It is believed that arable lands will increase 
as fast as the plows are offered to them for yet a long pe- 
riod. The basin of the Columbia is about one hundred 
and fifty by five hundred miles, and the fertility of it is 
a discovery of late years. Large tracts of it stood long 
on the maps of United States surveyors as " unfit for 
cultivation." The experiment of a thoughtful farmer 
brought the despised land to the front for wheat farms. 
Now it is well understood that where the bunch-grass 
grows wheat will flourish, and of such lands there are 
now boundless tracts devoted to stock-raising in Oregon 
and Washington. 

Peaches, pears, apples, plums, cherries, grapes, and, 
indeed, generally, the fruits of the temperate zone, flour- 
ish in the lower lands. The smaller fruits of the gar- 
den are abundant and ready for the table early in May. 
It is expected that the exportation of dried fruits will 
become a leading item in the commerce of that coun- 
try. 

Of course where the cereals and fruits are in such 
quantity and quality, the vegetables keep them company 



THE OREGON OF TO-DAY. 339 

in the homes »f the settlers, as is usual elsewhere. Po- 
tato, cabbage, turnip, squash, onion, beet, carrot, pars- 
nip, celery, tomato, and the varieties of melon are 
quite prolific. The last two do best in the drier and 
warmer soils east of the mountains. 

As a timber and lumber country, with facilities for 
transportation, probably the region is not surpassed. 
The merchant marine of the world could be built and 
annually renewed there, without heavy drafts on the 
natural supplies. The timber distant from water trans- 
portation will wait as a proper reserve for the branch 
railroads. The majesty and beauty of these primitive 
forests can hardly be exaggerated, where the yellow fir 
stands two hundred and fifty feet, the pine, silver fir, and 
black spruce one Imndred and fifty, and the white oak 
seventy. Cedars have been found there twenty feet in 
diameter. Nor does the demand allow these grand for- 
ests to stand uninvaded. A single mill has the capacity 
to cut out 200,000 feet of lumber a day, and in 1882 
the aggregate cutting capacity of all the mills was 
1,000,000 a day. 

In this connection the extent of navigable waters is a 
first consideration. The Columbia drains a basin of 
395,000 square miles, iucluding its tributaries, which em- 
brace twelve degrees of latitude and thirteen of longi- 
tude. The main stream is navigable for 725 miles from 
its mouth, with interruptions. This carries its naviga- 
tion within 450 miles of the navigable Missouri, and 
within 350 of the navigable Yellowstone, at Huntley. 
Nothing nearer and better than this will ever answer to 
the " Straits of Anian," that chimerical passage for ships 
through America to Asia, in the vain search for wliich 
80 much of the scholarly navigation of the world was 



340 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

wasted for two centuries and a half, witlj thousands of 
human lives and untold treasure. 

Good steam vessels can go up the Columbia 300 
miles, and light draught boats 725 miles. The Willa- 
mette is navigable for 138 miles, and the Snake for 150. 
Several navigable rivers empty into the Pacific on the 
Oregon coast, which allow much commerce for vessels 
of light draught. Tide water in Puget Sound and 
vicinity has a shore line of 1,800 miles in Washington, 
and such is its depth up to natural rock wharves, in 
sections, that the largest vessels can load and unload at 
them. For light drauglit steamers and for logging pur- 
poses the inland waters of Oregon and Washington fur- 
nish almost unlimited facilities. 

The run by steamer from Portland to Sitka, 1,000 
miles, is mostly in sight of the mainland, and through 
a perpetual archipelago. It would seem as if, on that 
far-away coast, the ocean and the continent once struggled 
for monopoly, and finally made a compromise. Hence 
the ocean runs up into the continent in an indefinite 
number of bays, inlets, creeks, and estuaries, while in 
and around these, as if to hold a full share, the continent 
has anchored her islands and peninsulas and bold head- 
lands. Like spirited parties closing a controversy, the 
divide is quite on the perpendicular, with threatening 
depth of water and equal boldness and uprightness of 
shore land. In the interior are the sentinel mountains 
on picket, watching the invading ocean, while it makes 
constant and vain assaults on the boundary line. The 
wooded islands and main sliores, with the heaviest of for- 
est, add a beauty and a charm, which crown the scenery 
as picturesque and grand, perhaps beyond parallel ; the 
sky and the water, meanwhile, rivaling each other in 



THE OREGON OF TO-DAY. 341 

the deepest blue. The plain prose of all which is that 
that coast, inland and seaward, is unusually favorable to 
light and heavy commerce. 

From what has been said of inland navigation it may 
be inferred that water power for mechanical purposes is 
abundant. It might be added that it is proximately un- 
limited, while there are vast natural stores for agricul- 
tural irrigation on the east of the mountain ranges. 
The water power of Oregon and Washington can be 
stated only briefly and in a genenp,l way. 

The Cascades, on the Columbia, about 150 miles from 
its mouth, constitute a remarkable waterfall in this great 
river, where in the course of four miles its descent is 
300 feet. The banks on both sides, to the extent of 
six miles, are susceptible of a double series of Lowells. 
Fifty miles above the Cascades are the Dalles, where 
the river is forced into a channel 175 feet wide, offer- 
ing its full volume of water to canals and machinery. 
A hundred miles or so above the Dalles, Lewis' branch 
and Clark's branch unite, forming the Columbia, and 
the volume of water for these falls below may be judged 
from the fact that at the juncture, Lewis' River is 2,880 
feet wide and Clark's is 1,725 feet. 

Going up the Willamette to Oregon City we meet a 
water power estimated at 1,000,000 horse power, where 
the river makes a plunge of forty feet. Fifty miles 
above Oregon City is Salem, through which the waters 
of the Santiam, the main feeder of the Willamette, are 
emptied into that river by six falls, which aggregate 102 
feet. Link River, that empties Upper Klamath Lake, 
offers manufacturing power equal to that of Oregon 
City. The Tualatin River, a west branch of the Wil- 
lamette, furnishes rare opportunities. By falls of 



342 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

twenty-two feet it enters Sucker Lake, and by ninety 
more of fall it empties into the Willamette at Oswego. 
By an aqueduct eight miles, and with a descent of 136 
feet, its waters could be brought into Portland. 

All these falls are of course suggestive of manufac- 
turing villages, and only a few of the whole are here 
mentioned. But a glance at the Government Map of 
the United States, compiled from the official surveys of 
the General Land Office, and issued late in 1882, will 
show one what abundant water facilities our Northwest 
possesses. The rivers are thickly laid, and the moun- 
tains among which they flow must give them a head 
and fall for an indefinite amount of power for human 
use. 

The manufactures of Oregon can be compactly stated 
from the census returns for 1880, according to which it 
appears that at that date the state had 1,744 establish- 
ments, employing 6,056 hands on $12,474,019 of capi- 
tal, with $6,155,560 of material and $2,016,311 in 
wages, and putting products on the market to the value 
of $13,342,130. Among the articles produced are agri- 
cultural implements, furniture, leather, and the various 
proceeds of it, the handiwork of wheelwrights, carpen- 
ters and blacksmiths, and of the most of the other trades 
that usually go with the above-mentioned. 

The salmon fisheries constitute a leading commercial 
interest in Oregon. Professor Goode, Special Agent 
for Fisheries for the census of 1880, gives the number 
of cases of packed salmon from Oregon for that year as 
538,587. As each case contains forty-eight one pound 
cans, here are nearly thirteen thousand tons of salmon 
for the trade of the world, at an estimated export value 
of $2,650,000. In 1866 this interest began with a 



THE OREGON OF TO-DAY. 343 

product of $64,000, and has made this growth. The 
average salmon weighs twenty-two pounds, and three of 
them generally to a case, so that the catch for Oregon 
in 1880 was about sixteen hundred thousand of that 
prince of fishes. 

Between Astoria and the Cascades are thirty-five can- 
neries. The fish are taken with gill-nets, seines, and 
traps, and the fisherman receives about sixty-five cents 
per fish. In 1881 about 1,600 boats were engaged, 
each costing, with outfit, about $600. The seines are 
from 300 to 600 feet long, and the nets from 1,500 to 
1,800, with depth of twelve feet. The head fishermen 
are generally Scandinavian and Italian. 

There seems to be no decrease in the supply since 
this business opened seventeen years ago, and while the 
figures now given pertain mainly to the Columbia, it 
must be considered that the minor rivers, all the way 
from the California line to Frazer's River over the 
British border, are fairly stocked for local use, as well 
as for some foreign trade. Eminently this is true of 
the Puget Sound region, where the inland seas, estu- 
aries, and small rivers are literally crowded with them. 

Other varieties of fish on those coasts should not go 
unmentioned, as the several species of the salmo family, 
sturgeon, halibut, cod, herring, and smelt. The cod- 
fishing of the Northwest is said to rival that of the 
Banks, and especially in the quality of cod. Some 
English authors complain that Great Britain gave away 
Oregon, and the " London Times " explains, when it 
speaks of the Columbia salmon catch of 1875 as four 
times that of the whole United Kingdom. 

Stock-raising was early tried in Oregon and Washing- 
ton, and the success of the experiments has made that 



344 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION-. 

country a rival of even Texas, in the judgment of praC' 
tical men. In 1880 it had 13,808,392 head of cattle in 
its 16,217 farms. Two or three things have favored 
this result. The native grasses are nutritious and abun- 
dant, and having been cured by the sun without cutting, 
they are constant and ample feed through the year. 
A tract east of the Cascade Mountains, 220 by 240 
miles, embracing the entire eastern section of the state, 
abounds in these grasses, and while the rain-fall may 
be only from nine to twelve inches, the most of its 
lakes, rivers, creeks, and springs allow abundance of 
water for stock purposes. But for agriculture, irriga- 
tion must be adopted, and this necessity will keep back 
the region from farming, and leave the border unmo- 
lested for the present. Still the bunch-grass land is 
tempting as wheat land. 

The mildness of the climate and the fair warmth of 
the winters, already mentioned, have made this an easy 
pursuit of wealth, since shelter and feeding in the cold 
season could be dispensed with. However, though 
milder there than in Illinois and New York, some dis- 
astrous storms, or unusually severe winters, have intro- 
duced changes in this regard ; and cover of some kind, 
and feed for emergencies, are now regarded as the best 
financial policy, especially for horned cattle. Horses 
and sheep endure this neglect better. 

The remarks of Mr. Hugh Small, made ten years 
ago, need qualifying under the experience of a decade : 
" The climate is fine : nine months of the year the 
climate is delightful. Snow falls in December, Janu- 
ary, and February, but it is a dry snow : it never pene- 
trates to the skin of the animals : they shake it off like 
dust. It seldom freezes, and all kinds of stock remain 



THE OREGON OF TO-DAY. 345 

out all the year, and fatten as well in winter as in sum- 
mer." 

The intelligent and successful stock-raisers have de- 
voted much interest and capital to the introduction of 
selected and approved bloods, even as in the East, and 
great changes have been wrou^^t in that regard. The 
California steer, Mexican scrub sheep, and Indian pony 
have gone by with the early days and rough times of 
Oregon. Of cattle, about 150,000 head are annually 
driven to the Eastern markets. 

In 1881, the clip of wool in Oregon was above 
8,000,000 of pounds, and it is said to be ranking with 
the best fleeces that reach the Eastern factories. 

It is too early to speak with much intelligence and 
authority on the minerals of Oregon. A thorough and 
uuspeculative survey is yet waited for. Gold has been 
found in Jackson, Josephine, Grant, and Baker coun- 
ties, and gold and silver have been mined to a million 
or so annually. What concerns more the interest and 
future history of Oregon is the fact that iron is abun- 
dant through the state, and that rich coal veins have 
been opened in several localities, as at Coos Bay, on 
the Umpqua and Yaquima rivers, at St. Helen and other 
places. 

From what has been stated it will be seen that the 
inland navigation of Oregon is an important item in its 
commerce and growth. An efficient line of steamers 
is established on the Columbia for 300 miles from its 
mouth, while lighter crafts are used 425 miles farther 
up. First-class steamers run up to Portland on the 
Willamette twelve miles from its mouth on the Colum- 
bia. This river allows for the trade of small vessels 



346 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

for 138 miles, and the Snake for a greater distance. 
The navigable waters of the Columbia and Mississippi 
valleys approach within 350 miles of each other. 

A system of packet steamers for travel and trade is 
quite inviting in this new state. Starting from Port- 
land one has a charming run, past the Cascades, 65 
miles, up to the Dalles, 110 miles ; or the same distance 
down to old Astoria of earliest enterprise, and commer- 
cial romance and diplomatic history. Or one would 
vary with boat and rail as he runs up to Olympia, 120 
miles, or yet farther into Washington to Seattle, 167 
miles. If inland and Sound running be preferred the 
seaworthy and well equipped steamers will run down 
and over to Victoria on Vancouver, 260 miles. 

Of course there are many small vessels, steam and 
sail, plying between the numerous ports, large and 
small, that give life and beauty to those inland waters, 
showing the energy, and thrift, and growth of that Pa- 
cific State. And what facilities for business and pleas- 
ure the navigable rivers of Oregon and Washington do 
not now furnish, the railroads are rapidly providing. 

As th^se sheets are going through the press, the North- 
ern Pacific Railroad, that herculean work, is laying its 
last connecting rails, and the grand ideal of its projec- 
tors is completed. Only by sections can its magnitude 
be realized. From Lake Superior into the Dakota 
Valley, 300 miles, to the Yellowstone, 300 more, and 
up and along that river, 400 ; then 300 through the 
Flathead Valley and a final 500 to Puget Sound. It is 
well that the ancients limited the wonders of the world 
to seven, else there would be a long catalogue. The 
scheme fills out the project and crowns the wonderful 
ride of the grand pioneer of it all. If the tomahawk 



THE OREGON OF TO-DAY. 347 

could have spared him from the saddle of 1843 for the 
palace car and golden spike of 1883 ! 

This may be considered as a trunk road, to open by 
branches, two hundred miles of breadth on each side of 
it. The compass of such a belt, between Lake Supe- 
rior and the Pacific, seems incredible. It would take 
in England and Scotland, and Ireland, France, Spain, 
and the thirty-five states of the old German Confedera- 
tion. 

And it is receiving, heavily, of these nations. A few 
hours of study at Castle Garden, watching the polyglot 
procession as it debarks, three thousand a day at one 
port only, and moves on, largely to the Northwest, will 
soon show how those magnificent areas are opening to 
overcrowded Europe. Since those prehistoric days, 
when Asia tilted toward Europe and spilled into it its 
Aryan hordes, there has not been such a column of the 
human race moving in one direction, as is now going 
out into our West and up into our Northwest. Hereto- 
fore such emigrations of mankind have served to divide 
up universal history into eras, and we are now opening 
for a new alcove in the historic library of the world. 

We are better prepared now, in the completion of the 
Northern Pacific, to fill the words of Henry Wilson 
with their proper meaning. When this noble inter- 
oceanic enterprise was before Congress, he said, and 
with much of boldness for that day, " I give no grudg- 
ing vote in giving away either money or land. I would 
sink $100,000,000 to build the road, and do it most 
cheerfully, and think I had done a great thing for my 
country." 

In Oregon and Washington the branches of this trunk 
road are running out quite freely, in a new country, for 



348 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

its development. Not only do the connecting links go 
into the main line, but branches also are to be com- 
pleted by midsummer of this year from Portland to 
Kalama ; from Palouse Junction to Farmington and 
Moscow ; from Riparia to Lewiston ; and from Union 
to Baker City. The Oregon and California road is 
completed much south of Roseburg, and is progressing 
rapidly to a connection at the state line with the Cali- 
fornia and Oregon road. 

That Northwest therefore, so far off till now, has be- 
come our next-door neighbor, and as near to New York 
as Monday is to Friday. Where were heard, mainly, 
only the dashings of her rivers in the primeval stillness 
of her wilderness, are now the puffing of steamers and 
whistle of locomotives, and clatter of mills and bustle 
of trade, and the glad sounds of farm life, and the win- 
some music of children. The Oregon question and the 
era of the beaver, one and the same thing, are ended. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

CONCLUSION. 

It is with regrets that this monograph or study of a 
single line of thought and growth in American history 
is brought to a conclusion. In writing it not only a re- 
creation and pleasure have been indulged, but a theory 
has been gratified that sometimes history is best studied 
and taught and mastered topically. In this instance a 
line of territorial growth to one termination has been 
carefully followed. It has proved a thread from which 
many lateral or side threads have sprung as we passed 
along. These have been allowed to extend, if we may 
illustrate by grape culture, till they have been pruned 
away, or set fruit in one or more historic clusters and 
then been headed off. 

Wilderness traffic, nursed to the hinderance of civili- 
zation, has been traced, and the emigrant wagon fol- 
lowed from clearing to prairie, and on up the valleys 
and into the mountains. We have counted the cabins 
where government has since taken the city census. We 
have watched the scramble of nations for land with 
dubious titles or none at all, till hot blood and running 
blood prepared the way for diplomatists and civil en- 
gineers. Here we have seen that governments seem to 
be but immense business firms, ruinous to the smaller 
ones, by the laws of trade that the stronger enact and 
the weaker endure. lu these struggles to possess a 



350 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

new country, or repossess a lost one, we look long for 
any national ethics or law of right except what is avoir- 
dupois. 

The inside view of high contracting parties shows us 
finesse, ambiguities, sinuosities, and misleading eddies 
in the grave current of the business in hand. Tricks 
that would shame a huckster have much lessened our 
childhood reverence for great names and nations, as we 
have followed these threads of history and lines of 
growth from York Factory and the St. Lawrence and 
from the Potomac to the Columbia. 

While presenting the one topic, the concession of 
Oregon to the United States, it has been incidental and 
inevitable, and vastly instructive to see how wanting in 
honor and philanthropy and patriotism a huge chartered 
monopoly can sometimes become. It would require 
statesmen of the Bismarck and Webster and Gladstone 
type to show how much the British Empire was dam- 
aged when the Hudson Bay Company voted the north- 
ern half of our continent to be wilderness in perpetuity. 
What are the civilization of savages and fair fields and 
winsome homes to them in comparison with good divi- 
dends at the home office in Fenchurch Street, London ? 

By this detail of consecutive and fruitful incidents, 
all converging toward the Canal de Haro, policies of 
peace and war pass in review, and we note how difficult 
and how blessed it is for leading statesmen to be peace- 
makers. One secures popularity for to-day on a war-cry, 
while the broader patriot pacifies the excited populace, 
and cools popular ardor toward himself, and at Marsh- 
field awaits honor from the ages. 

While studying our national growth in one line we 
have incidentally and inevitably seen it on many lines. 



CONCLUSION. 351 

To produce this result has been a leading aim in these 
historical tracings, that the reader might come to see 
the magnitude and magnificence of our country — ■ what 
Gladstone has called " a natural base for the greatest 
continuous empire ever established by man." 

In colonial and revolutionary days one of the best 
friends of the coming Republic was Thomas Pownall. 
He was early the Secretary of the Commission for 
Trade and Plantations. He negotiated for Massachu- 
setts the expedition against Crown Point, and was 
afterward royal governor for Massachusetts, New Jer- 
sey, and South Carolina. Few men comprehended bet- 
ter the geographical character and natural worth of our 
country, and he studied the growth of our institutions 
both as a statesman and a traveler. He early saw and 
said, 1780, that such a people as the United States 
would become, would not " suffer in their borders such 
a monopoly as the European Hudson Bay Company." 

In his letter of adieu to Franklin, who was about 
leaving Europe for home, he says : " You are going to 
a New World, formed to exhibit a scene which the Old 
World never yet saw." In an earlier letter to Franklin, 
and when referring to the planting and growth of the 
great nation he foresaw us to be, he expressed a wish 
to revisit America, saying : " If there was ever an ob- 
ject worth traveling to see, and worthy of the contem- 
plation of a philosopher, it is that in which he may see 
the beginning of a great empire at its foundation." 

Along our Oregon trail we have had one line of vision 
among these foundations. They have run off, right and 
left, from our path into magnificent distances, covering 
what we almost without meaning tall " the West." To 
see and study the beginnings of these foundations of a 



352 OREGON: THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. 

great empire, as Governor Pownall wished to do, would 
turn provincial into continental men. 

Our line of study and thought and feeling in this 
theme have, from the first, had a westward trend. Per- 
haps the readers will feel as Washington did, aftei- re- 
turning from a " Western tour." While the army was 
lying in winter quarters at Newburg, under truce, and 
awaiting the treaty of peace, he made a journey with 
Governor Clinton, into the interior and as far west as the 
heads of the Susquehanna. Of this trip he writes : — 

" Prompted by these actual observations, I could not 
help taking a more extensive view of the vast inland 
navigation of the United States, from maps, and the in- 
formation of others, and could not but be struck with the 
immense extent and importance af it, and with the 
goodness of that Providence which has dealt its favors 
to us with so profuse a hand. Would to God we may 
have wisdom enough to improve them." 

The treaty then pending was to concede to the United 
States about one fifth only of the territory she owns to- 
day. Yet Washington was " struck with the immense 
extent and importance" of that one fifth, and he con- 
tinues his letter by saying, so like the statesman and 
American that he was : " I shall not be contented till I 
have explored the Western Country," — a noble and 
necessary sentiment for all who would be national 
Americans. 




Map showing the last boundary in dispute between England and tha 
United States. 



IE"DEX. 



Aberdeen, Earl, regrets the haste of 
Pakenham, 290. 

Adams, John Quincy, and the Russian 
claims on the Pacific, 23, 24 ; on 
and for Oregon, 275. 

Agriculture discouraged by Hudson 
Bay Company, 88-90, 321-324. 

Alaska, lower part, leased by Russia 
to Hudson Bay Company, 25. 

Alexander VI., Pope, Bull of, 1, 5, 
13. 

American Board and " Whitman's 
Ride," 241-243. 

American Desert, a popular and de- 
ceptive term, 192-197, 337, 338. 

American domain, increase of, from 
Spain and France, 115. 

American Fur Company, organized St. 
Louis, 1808, 58 ; rooms, St. Louis, 
remarkable scene in, 110. 

Arbitration, proposed and declined, 
315. 

Ashburton Treaty, defended by Web- 
ster, 278 ; fixed boundary to the 
Rocky Mountains, 297. 

Ashley opens trade on the heads of 
the Platte and Colorado, 79. 

Astor, of Astoria, John Jacob, 58, 59 ; 
plans for fur trade on the Pacific, 59 ; 
fomids Astoria by an overland ex- 
pedition, and one by Cape Horn, 60, 
61 ; sad fate of the Tonquin, 61 ; the 
war and other mishaps, 61 ; is 
treacherously sold out, 61, 62 ; the 
English take Astoria, 63 ; and de- 
cline to restore it according to the 
treaty of peace, 64, 65, 285; held 
by Northwest Fur Company till 1845, 
66 ; what kind of a post, Q6, 283 ; a 
settlement that constituted a claim, 
219, 220. 

"Atlantic Monthly " on the Whitman 
and Webster interview, 231. 

Authorities used in compiling this vol- 
ume, iii.-vi. 

Bagot, English plenipotentiary, op- 



poses the reoccupation of Astoria, 
64. 

Balboa, claims of, to the Pacific Ocean, 
2, 206. 

Bancroft, George, manages the arbi- 
tration for the United States before 
the Emperor Wilham, 317, 318. 

Barrow, Sir John, and northwest pas- 
sage, 45. 

Beaver, abundance of, 34. 

Bent, Charles, Governor, the hospital- 
ity of his fort, and his service to the 
Republic, 172, 173. 

Bent's Fort, where and what, 172, 173. 

Bent and St. Vrain lead the Santa F^ 
trade, 79, 173. 

Benton, Hon. T. H., proposal to set 
the god Terminus on the Rocky 
Mountains, 19 ; to take Oregon with 
rifles, 259, 276 ; states a plan for di- 
viding Pacific coast, 284. 

Bering, his discoveries and death, 22. 

Bible, sought by Indians in St. Louis, 
103-113. 

Black Hills, forbidden by Indians to 
white men, 28. 

Black Hills, Carver's prophecy con- 
cerning, 28. 

Bodega, Cal., Russian stockade post, 
25. 

Bonneville, and his romantic trade on 
the Colorado and Columbia, 81. 

Boundary question between the United 
States and Great Britain, difiiculties 
of, 53-56 ; fuially settled by the Em- 
peror William, 56, 315-319. 

Bounty on marriage, 124. 

Bridal tour of 3,500 miles, 129-139. 

" British and Foreign Review," opin- 
ions of, 87, 192. 

Brouillet, on the Whitman massacre, 
326—328 

Buffalo, slaughter of, 99-101. 

Calhoun, John C, on omission of Or- 
egon from the Ashburton Treaty, 
227 ; on war for Oregon, 278-280. 



356 



INDEX. 



California, English scheme to seize, 
273. 

Campbell, Archibald, U. S. Commis- 
sioner, to run the Oregon Treaty 
line, 297. 

Canada, a part of Florida under Spain, 
5. 

Canal de Haro, 300. 

Cannon first taken into the mountains, 
79. 

Carver, Jonathan, explores the West, 
1766-1768, 27-29, 31. 

Cass, on war for Oregon, 280. 

Catlin and the four Flat-Head Indians, 
112, 113. 

Cattle introduced from California, 89. 

Chesapeake, frigate, attack on, de- 
stroys treaty of 1807, 67. 

Chevalier de Poletica's bold claim for 
Russia on the northwest coast, 24. 

Chief trader in the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany, his domain of solitude, 95, 
96. 

Choate, Hon. Rufus, for watch and 
guard on Oregon, 65 ; for delay and 
peace, 259, 260 ; for occupation by 
immigration, 270. 

Christian Missions on the northwest 
coast, their origin, 116, 117. 

Christian work among the Indians, 
88-91. 

Clark, General George Rogers, saves 
St. Louis, 49. 

Clark, General William, public life in 
upper Louisiana, etc., 106-113. 

Clayton, on war for Oregon, 276. 

Colonial [English] Magazine and mis- 
sionaries, 91. 

Colonists, criminal and immoral, 
shipped to the new world, 123-125. 

Colonial [English] Magazine, 91. 

Columbia River, all claimed by Rush, 
73. 

Columbia, such a river suspected by 
Meares, Vancouver, and others, 213 ; 
progressive discovery of, claimed 
by English, 215. 

Conclusion, 349-352 ; American growth 
traced on one line, 349 ; national 
ethics, 349, 350 ; a monopoly studied 
and its lesson, 350 ; two kinds of 
popularity, 350 ; national growth, 
as a whole, 350, 351. 

Cook, James, discoveries of, on north- 
west coast, 29, 30. 

Council Bluffs, singular error as to 
location of, 73. 

Crittenden, on war for Oregon, 274, 
276. 

Crozat and his Charter, 88, 289. 

Cushing, Caleb, on the northern limits 
of Louisiana, 209, 210. 



Davis, Jefferson, on war for Oregon, 
275. 

Dayton, on war for Oregon, 279. 

De Tocqueville laments for France the 
loss of Louisiana, 21. 

D'Iberville, energy and ambition of, 
10. 

Dinner in the Rocky Mountains, 136. 

Discovery of the mouth of a river, 
gave its valley to the discoverer, 
213, 216. 

Distances in the " Lone Land," 39, 96, 

Dobbs, opposed by Hudson Bay Com- 
pany, in seeking the northwest pas- 
sage, 45. 

Dog-trains, 95-97. 

Douglas, of Illinois, on war for Oregon, 
275. 

Drake, Sir Francis, ridiculous corona- 
tion of, 206. 

Duflot de Mofras, map of, 301. 

Duncan thwarted by the Hudson Bay 
Company in searching for the north- 
west passage, 46. 

Dunn, John, on the monopoly of the 
Hudson Bay Company, 269. 

East or West, for investment of be- 
nevolent donations ? 77,78, 197, 198. 

"Edinburgh Review," opinions of, 
150, 192, 194, 253, 264. 

Elizabeth, of Russia, gains possession 
in North America, 3. 

Ely Volume on the interview between 
Whitman and Webster, 231, 232, 242. 

Emigration, examples of, 265, to Ore- 
gon, stimulated, 263, 264 ; early, on 
the Ohio, 240 ; early practice of, at 
St. Louis, 243-245 ; increased by 
Whitman, 251, 252. 

England in the New World in 1697, 
4 ; begins to explore her acquisitions 
from the French in 1763 ; struggles 
to retain the northwest territory af- 
ter the revolution, 31 ; retains seven 
military posts against the treaty 
of 1783, 31, 32, 48 -, instigates the 
Indians to war on the frontier, 32 ; 
struggles to expel the French from 
the Ohio, 48; refuses to surrender 
Fort Albany to the French, accord- 
ing to the Treaty of Rysv/ick, 49 ; 
singular pretence to retain Oregon, 
65 ; violates treaty of " joint occu- 
pation " of Oregon, 66, 67, 310; 
struggles to regain the West, 68; 
how England lost Oregon, 69 ; kept 
out of a magnificent country by the 
Hudson Bay Company, 99, 151, 152, 
267, 295, 296 ; England's great' mis- 
take on Oregon, 87-102 ; her mo- 
nopoly of Oregon strongly resented, 



INDEX. 



357 



257-260 ; did not claim exclusive 
sovereignty, 223, 262; wished the 
Columbia for boundary in 1818, 283, 
284 ; embarrassed by the haste of 
Pakenham, 290 ; damaged by the 
Hudson Bay Company, 295, 296. 

English ambition for territory, 218. 

English and American policies on the 
frontier, in two pictures, 99-101 ; in 
contrast, 114, 115, 117-119. 

English, French, and Spanish mistake 
in colonizing America, 122-127. 

European policy of colonization and 
failure in North America, 114, 115. 

Evans on war for Oregon, 279 ; on 
Whitman massacre, 327. 

Family life indispensable to civiliza- 
tion, 122, 123, 126. 

" Fifty-four forty, or Fight," 272-281 ; 
a six months question before the 
country and congress, 273 ; eminent 
debaters on, 274. 

Florida Treaty, 1819, 222, 223, 284. 

Floyd, the first of the House to move 
for legislation on Oregon, 198. 

Fort Boise, 143. 

Fort Chartres founded 1720, 9 ; be- 
comes lYench headquarter, and the 
Paris of Upper Louisiana, 9. 

Fort Chipewayan, 33. 

Fort Hall, its hostility to immigration, 
142, 147-149, 152. 

France in the New World in 1697, 2, 
10, 17 ; discoveries of, 6-12 ; loss by 
Treaty of Utrecht, 18 ; by battle on 
the Plains of Abraham, 1759, 18 ; 
sells the Louisiana west of the 
Mississippi, 19 ; regrets for the 
same, 19-21 ; re-purchases, 20 ; de- 
feated in occupjring, and sells to the 
United States, 21. 

Eraser Lake Settlement, the first be- 
yond the mountains, 58. 

Fremont and the Oregon trail, 133 ; as 
an escort, 249, 250; in California, 
273. 

Frobisher's trading post on Athabasca 
Lake, 33. 

Frontier men, noble and neglected, 
43 ; open the new country, 79. 

Gallatin, Albert, on the Oregon 

claims, 212. 
Genet, the French Minister, intrigues 

for secession of the Southwest, 19. 
Ghent, Treaty of, 64, 67, 68 ; does not 

notice Lake of the Woods, 283. 
Gladstone on America's growth, 245, 

351. 
Government of Oregon, moral tone of, 

265-268. 



Gray's History of Oregon on the 

Whitman and Webster interview, 

230. 
Gray, Captain Robert, discovers the 

Columbia, 213-216. 
Greenhow on the northern limits of 

Louisiana, 209. 
Greenland in New Spain, 6. 

Half-Breeds, 92, 94, 95, 125, 126, 149. 

Hammerfest, Norway, and its climate, 
334. 

Harney, Greneral, complicates the San 
Juan question, 311-315. 

Harrison, General, and the Indian 
war of 1812, 52, 53. 

Hearne, Samuel, discoveries by, 29. 

Hines' History of Oregon, on the 
Whitman and Webster interview, 
230. 

Historic picture, 134, 135. 

Hudson Bay Company explores the 
Northwest, 29 ; charter of, 33 ; lead- 
ing force against the United States 
in possessing, 36; objects of the 
Charter, 36 ; scope of power and 
of territory, 36-39; monopoly of 
Indian trade in British North 
America, 37-39, 85 ; encroachment 
on United States territory, 37, 53 ; 
united in 1821 with Northwest Fur 
Company, 37 ; empowered in 1803 
to adopt Canadian laws, 38, 84 ; un- 
changing sameness of business, 39, 
40 ; why peace always with the In- 
dians, 40, 41, 321 ; its trade six years 
in outfit and return to London, 
41, 95; stock and profits of the 
Company, 42; ability of, 43-45; 
obstructed discoveries, 45-47 ; order 
filled for a wife, 69, 126 ; hostile to 
civilization, 69, 70, 88, 321 ; mo- 
nopoly of, 74, 75,84, 87, 198, 199, 269, 
303 ; loneliness of the region, T 
hostile to missions, 88, 90 ; acquisi 
tioii of property discouraged, 89 
neat cattle kept out, 89 ; allows 
broken-down men to become farm- 
ers, 90 ; number of Europeans 
employed by, 94 ; mixed blood of 
the Company's employes, 94, 95 ; 
interior workings of , 95-102 ; amuse- 
ments of employes, 97 ; trapping 
and hunting, methods of, 97, 98 ; 
amomit of fur exported, 98 ; its 
policy in contrast with the Amer- 
ican, 117, 119, 122, 123, 321, 322 ; offi- 
cers and servants went out as single 
men, and married the natives, 125 ; 
opposition to wagons, 140-146 ; 
represents immigration over the 
mountains to Oregon impossible; 



358 



INDEX. 



149-159; the managers men of 
great ability, 150 ; created inter- 
national prejudice in their favor, 
150, 151, 153-156; 191, 192; sup- 
pressed information, 153 ; power of 
the Company on the Pacific, 157, 269, 
274 ; still turn back immigrants at 
Fort Hall, 158 ; plan to take and 
hold Oregon by settlement, 161 ; the 
plan revealed, 162; new policy of, 
266 ; plan to hold by force and 
Jesuits, 268 ; grasping nature of, 
288-289 ; damaging to Great Britain, 
295, 296. 

Indemnity, claimed and paid to Hud- 
son Bay Company, 294, 295. 

Indian and Traders' Fair, 135-139. 

"Indian Countries," what, 87, 88; 
trading, 98. 

Indian incident, thrilling, 107, 108; 
speech, eloquent, 110, 111 ; vain 
search for Bible, 103-113 ; Fair at 
Mus-ko-gee, 136, 137 ; Secession be- 
yond the Alleghanies, danger of after 
the Revolution, 51. 

Indian policy of the United States 
less peaceable than the English, and 
why, 40, 41. 

Indian slavery in English Northwest, 
91, 92. 

Indians, Flat-Head, four, in St. Louis, 
103-113 ; from Washington Terri- 
tory, 104 ; had heard of white man's 
God and Book and came for the 
Book, 105; perils of the way, 105, 
106 ; seek General Clark, known to 
their fathers, 106, 108: received 
kindly, 109, 110 ; fail to find the 
Book, 110 ; final audience and fare- 
well speech, 110, 111 ; return to the 
mountains with Catlin, 112 ; their 

« sad case reported by a clerk of the 
American Fur Company, 112 ; only 
one lives to reach his tribe, 113. 

Indians, government of by imposition, 
97 ; prejudiced against the Ameri- 
cans, 66, 67. 

Indians, why the Whitman Massacre 
by, 320-329. 

Irving, Washington, description of the 
half-breeds, 93, 94. 

Jackson, General, advising slow 
groviiih west, 199. 

Jelferson's plan for northern bound- 
ary of Louisiana Purchase, 282, 283. 

Jesuits, their zeal as discoverers, 7, 9, 
30 ; to be used to exclude the Amer- 
icans, 267, 268 ; no evident connec- 
tion with the Whitman Massacre, 
321-329. 



" Jomt occupation " of Oregon, terms 
of, 69 ; adopted 1818, 283 ; renewed 
1827, 285 ; continued till 1843, 286. 

Joliet explores the Mississippi, 1682, 
8. 

Journeying over the Plains and Rocky 
Moxmtains, 130-139 

Kaskaskia founded, 1705, 8; taken 

by United States in 1778, 9. 
Kellett's surveys change an important 

map, 301. 
Kelley, Hall J., aids emigration to 

Oregon, 81. 
"Kuro-siwo," or "Black Stream " of 

the Pacific, 334. 

Lake of the Woors, mistake in locat- 
mg by treaty of 1783, 53, 55, 299. 

UAnnee du Coup of St. Louis, 49. 

La Salle on the Mississippi, 1G70, 7, 8. 

Law, John, and the "Mississippi Bub- 
ble," 290. 

Lee, Revs. Jason and Daniel, Mission- 
aries to Oregon, 117, 121. 

Lewis and Clark, Expedition of, 217, 
218. 

Linn, Senator for Missouri, fails to 
close "joint occupation," 255 ; calls 
for information, 256. 

" London Examiner," opinions of, 192. 

Long, Lieut, and a "Great American 
Desert," 337. 

Louis XIV. proclaimed King of the 
Northwest, 7, 8 ; what his signature 
lost to France in the Treaty of 
Utrecht, 18. 

Lovejoy, Amos Lawrence, with Dr. 
Whitman in his ride, 166 ; some ac- 
count of the journey by him, 168, 
1G9 ; left at Bent's Fort, 173. 

Louisiana, secretly transferred to 
Spain, 1762, 12 ; exclianged with 
France for Tuscany, 20; southern 
boundary of, as conveyed to the 
United States, 71 ; annoying delays 
in running the southern boundary, 
71, 72 ; and was nevei run, 72 ; ex- 
tent of as affected by the Nootka 
Convention, 208 ; did the Louisiana 
extend to the Pacific, or beyond 
Lake of the Woods ? 209, 216 ; trans- 
fer to the United States delayed, 
and guaranteed by Napoleon, 210 ; 
formal cession, 210, 211 ; the pur- 
chase of, 216; terms of reconveyance 
from Spain to France, 222 ; price of, 
21. 

Mackenzie, Alexander, excursion to 
the Arctic, 33 ; to the Pacific, 33- 
36 ; power of, 35. 



INDEX. 



359 



MacNamara scheme to seize Califor- 
nia, 273. 

Madison on northern limits of Louisi- 
ana, 209. 

Maine Historical Society, Collections 
of, on Ashbiirton Treaty, 235. 

Manitoba, the home of the forest aris- 
tocracy, 94. 

Marietta, founding of, 116. 

Marquette explores the Mississippi, 
1G82, 8. 

Marriage, how promoted in French, 
Spanish and English Colonies, 122- 
125 ; of Hudson Bay Company men, 
92-94, 

McDuffle, on war for Oregon, 274. 

Meares fails to find the suspected 
Columbia, 213, 214. 

Memorial of Bancroft to the Emperor 
WilUam, 317, 318. 

Mexican war made it unnecessary to 
run Southern boundary of Louisiana 
Purchase, 71, 72. 

Middleton hindered by Hudson Bay 
Company in seeking the northwest 
passage, 46. 

Military occupation of Oregon pro- 
posed, 72, 74, 76, 260, 261, 272, 
284. 

Mirabeau's adroit management in the 
Nootka Convention, 207. 

Missionary explorers sent to Oregon, 
117, 121; missions opened, 122. 

*' Missionary Herald " on the Whitman 
and Webster interview, 230-232. 

Missionary party to Oregon, 129-139. 

Mississippi, navigation of, sought by 
the English, 55, 68. 

Mississippi River, English attempt to 
secure the navigation of, 55. 

Monette on the EngUsh struggle for 
the Ohio, 48. 

Monopoly, a warning example of, by 
the Hudson Bay Company, 102, 289. 

Monroe Doctrine, its substance, urged 

by the United States, 24-26. 
Monroe on the northern limits of 
Louisiana, 209. 

Mule, singular case of instinct, 170, 
171. 

Napoleon guarantees the conveyance 
of Louisiana to the United States, 
against the delays of Spain, 210, 
211 ; defeated in his plans for Louisi- 
ana, 20, 21. 

New Caledonia, what, 58. 

New England, idea of a new settle- 
ment, U5-117. 

New Spain, boundary of, on the north 
never run, 12 ; quality of her colo- 
nists, 15, 16. 



Newspapers in the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany's regions, 41. 

Nootka Convention of 1790. Causes of, 
14, 15, outline facts of, 205-211; 
commercial and not territorial, 207, 
210, 221 ; abrogated by war of 1796, 
207, 208 ; conamercial articles of, 
only renewed in 1814, 208 ; impor- 
tance of, to the United States title, 
220-223. 

Notice, proposed to close "joint oc- 
cupation" of Oregon, 274-281. 

Omo Company of 1751, and plans of, 

48. 

Ohio Company of Putnam, 116. 

"Old Wagon " of Dr. Whitman, 140- 
146. 

Oregon, first step of England into, 35 ; 
struggle for, opened, 58 ; pretense of 
Great Britain to hold, 65 ; treaty for 
"joint occupation " of, 68, 69 ; con- 
gressional action on, 72-76; "joint 
occupation " extended indefinitely, 
75 ; fails of interest in the old states, 
77, 78 ; is opened by Western men, 
79 ; not included in the Ashburton 
Treaty, 179 ; Oregon disappointed, 
185 ; a common question, was it 
worth having ? 189-204 ; information 
scarce, 189-194 ; traders in, were not 
writers, 191 ; Oregon undervalued 
by Captain William Sturgis, 193 ; 
and by Benton and Winthrop, 193 ; 
by the " Edinburgh Review, " 194 ; 
by McDuffie of South Carolina, 195 ; 
first congressional action on for leg- 
islation, 198 ; some wilUng Oregon 
should become a separate nation, 
200, 201 ; boundaries and area of, 
205, 212 ; title of, claimed bj' Spain, 
205 ; title of, claimed by England 
through Drake, 206 ; Nootka Con- 
vention on titles, 207 ; this conven- 
tion commercial and not territorial, 
207, 210 ; abrogated by war of 1796, 
according to Lord Bathurst, 207, 
208 ; reaffirmed, 1814, 208 ; claims 
of the United States from the Noot- 
ka Treaty, 208-210 ; Oregon ques- 
tion goes under discussion by the 
people, 255, 257 ; and by Congress, 
256 ; call by Congress for informa- 
tion, 256, 257 ; strong feeling against 
"joint occupation," 258; state of 
the case December, 1845, 262 ; popu- 
lation of, 1846, 264 ; civil government 
inaugurated, 265, 266, 268 ; republi- 
can institutions in germ, 268, 269 ; 
immigration takes Oregon, 263-271 ; 
war for Oregon ? a six month's 
question, 273 ; eminent debaters on, 



360 



INDEX, 



ll'^L ; notices to close " joint occupar 
tion" passed as a peace measure, 
280, 281. 

Oregon as a separate nation, favored 
by Jefferson, 200, 201 ; in Boston, 
201 ; by GaUatin, 201. 

Oregon Treaty, dates of progress in, 
293 ; obscurity of, turned against the 
English writers of it, 293-294. 

Oregon of to-day, 330-352 ; location, 
area, population, 330 ; as compared 
with New England for human homes, 
330, 331 ; facilities for commerce, 
natural scenery, climate, and pro- 
ductions, 331-333 ; causes of warm 
temperature, 334 ; illustrated, 334 ; 
government organized, 335 ; popu- 
lation, 335 ; Northern Pacific Rail- 
road creates a market, 336 ; wheat 
and other crops, 336 ; amount of 
arable land, 336-338 ; fruits and 
vegetables, 338, 339 ; timber and 
lumber, 339 ; navigable waters, ma- 
rine and inland, 339, 340 ; water 
power, 341, 342 ; manufactures, 342 ; 
fisheries, 342, 343 ; stock-raising, 
343-345 ; sheep and wool, 345 ; min- 
erals, 345 ; inland steam navigation, 
345, 346 ; Northern Pacific Railroad, 

346, 347 ; immigration, 347 ; branch 
railroads in Oregon and Wasliington, 

347, 348 ; Oregon and California 
railroad, 348 j Oregon and New 
York five days apart, 348. 

Oswald, in treaty of 1783, struggles to 

retain the uortliwest, 31. 
" Out West " in old colony times, 144, 

145, 
Owen, of Indiana, on Oregon, 263, 264. 

Pacific coast and United States own- 
ership, 273. 

Pacific coast, proposed division of, be- 
tween United States, England, and 
Russia, 284. 

Pakenham, English minister on the 
Oregon Question, arrives, 286. 

Parker, Rev. Samuel, missionary to 
Oregon, 117, 121 ; exploring tour of, 
121, 122. 

Parma, Duke and Duchy of, in the 
retrocession of Louisiana to France, 
20. 

Pattie, J. O., and his travel for trade 
into New Mexico and Mexico, 80. 

Pelley, Sir John, Governor of Hudson 
Bay Company, intercedes for Com- 
pany interests, 289. 

Peter the Great on the northwest 
coast, 3, 22-26. 

Philadelphia, Mayor and Mr. Webster, 
184. 



Pickett, Captain, commanding Amer» 
ican forces on San Juan, 311. 

Pike, Lieutenant, and a " Great Amer- 
ican Desert," 337. 

Pilcher, and his important tour for 
furs, 80. 

Pitt, the younger, shapes the Nootka 
Convention, 14. 

Plains of Abraham, cost of battle there 
to France, 18, 19. 

Polk, President, 260, 272. 

Post Henry established, the first in 
valley of Columbia, 58. 

Pownall, Governor, letters to Franklin 
and desire to see American founda- 
tions go in, 351, 352. 

Prevost, James Charles, English Com- 
missioner to run the Oregon Treaty 
line, 297. 

Public buildings, the first in Oregon, 
265. 

Puget Sound Agricultural Company, 
42. 

Putnam, Rufus, and the Ohio Com- 
pany, 116. 

"Quart of seed wheat," 114-121. 

Rabbits' Skins sold in London in one 
year, 43. 

Railroads, when opened in New Eng- 
land, 143. 

Rendezvous of trappers and traders in 
the mountains, 135-139. 

Robinson's account of Indian govern- 
ment, 97. 

Rocky Mountain Fair, 135-139. 

Roman Catholic policy in withholding 
the Bible, 109 ; great zeal and sacri- 
fice in missions, 109 ; no evident 
connection with the Whitman mas- 
sacre, 324-329. 

Rosario Straits, 300 ; location changed 
by English geographers, 301. 

Rupert's Land, what, 33. 

Rush, secures the reoccupation of As- 
toria, 64; on the Boundary Com- 
mission of 1818, 283. 

Russell, Lord John, 307. 

Russia in the New World, 3, 22-26. 

Russian fur trade in North America, 
22-26 ; colony in California, 23-26. 

Ryswick, Treaty of, 1. 

San Juan boundary, extent, islands, 
and channels of, etc. , 299, 300 ; Eng- 
lish finesse, 301, 302 ; amount of 
land involved in the San Juan con- 
troversy, 302 ; time and labor con- 
sumed by the commissioners, 303 ; 
de Haro marked by nature as "the 
channel which separates the conti- 



INDEX. 



361 



nent from Vancouver's Island, ' ' 303 ; 
was understood by the makers of the 
treaty to be the channel, 303, 304 ; 
Prevost from the first claims Rosa- 
rio, 304 ; Prevost refuses to mark by 
monument the point of contact be- 
tween the land and the water line, 
305 ; labors to carry that point fif- 
teen miles too far east, 305 ; appar- 
ent English scheme, 305-308 ; San 
Juan had been conveyed to the Hud- 
son Bay Company in violation of 
treaty of "joint occupation," 306, 
307; refused absolutely to the United 
States, 307 ; English assumption, 
308 ; apt reply of Secretary Cass, 
308, 309 ; work of the commission- 
ers ends suddenly and unsatisfacto- 
rily, 309 ; Americans and English 
occupy San Juan, 310, 311 ; civil 
conflict, 311 ; American and Eng- 
lish forces near to fighting, 311-313 ; 
General Scott arrives and restores 
peace, 313, 314 ; Minister Lyons, 
1860, proposes an arbitrator to inter- 
pret the treaty, the King of the 
Netherlands, or of Sweden and Nor- 
way, or the Swiss President, and 
Secretary Cass declines, 315 ; in 
1871 the Emperor of Germany is 
made arbitrator and accepts, 315, 
316; august and sad tribunal, 316, 
317; the finality of the boundary 
question after ninety years, 319. 

Santa F6, what ; receives Dr. Whit- 
man, 172. 

Scott, General, quiets the San Juan 
parties, 313-315. 

Secession, early, proposed, 19, 50-52. 

Selkirk settlement, 94, 161, 

Semple, of Illinois, estimate of emi- 
gration, 264. 

Settlements, mercantile and civilizing 
in contrast, 122-127. 

Settlement of a country is more than 
occupation, 219. 

Seward, W. H., Secretary, anticipated 
by Carver, at St. Paul, 28. 

Seward, W. H., Secretary, and his 
prophesy of Seat of Empire, 28. 

Silence, painful, of the Great Fur 
Land, 41. 

Simpson, Sir George, toiu-s and obser- 
vations of, 153-158 ; he speaks dis- 
couragingly of distances, soil, great 
deserts, etc., 154 ; assumes validity 
of the English claims, and defies 
the United States to take possession, 
115 ; proposes to divide the vacant 
parts of the world with Russia, 156 ; 
shows how England may take Cali- 
fornia, 157. 



Sixty years' struggle of England for 
the Ohio region, 48. 

Slavery in English northwest, 91, 92. 

Slocum's Report to Congress on 
slavery in Indian countries, 91, 92. 

Small, on the products of Oregon, 332. 

Spain, in the New World, 1, 5-10; 
shrinkage of, 11-16 ; expels the 
English from West Florida, 1779, 
49 ; tempts a secession of the 
southwest, 51 ; the Nootka Con- 
vention, 205-211. 

Spalding, Rev. H. H., engages as 
missionary, 127-129 ; misapprehends 
Webster on the Oregon question, 
229-238 ; testimony to the work of 
Dr. Whitman, 263. 

Spalding, Mrs., heroism of, 133- 

State House, a primitive one, 265. 

St. Croix, what river is it ? 54. 

St. George, English name for Astoria, 
63-65. 

St. Louis, attacked by the English and 
Indians, 1780, 49, old centre of the 
fur trade, 79. 

St. Lusson on Lake Superior, 1671, 
takes the northwest for Louis 
XIV., 7, 8. 

Straits of Anian, 6, 7 ; search for, 27, 
28, by Carver, by Hearne, 29, Hud- 
son Bay Company to search for, 
33 ; neglect of, 45 ; Vancouver in- 
structed, 299. 

Sublette and the Rocky Mountain 
Company, 80. 

Tartart in New Spain, 6. 

Testimony for Dr. Whitman, by his 
emigrants, 246-7. 

Tecumseh and General Harrison, 52, 
53. 

Texas taken by the French, 1685-1689. 

" The Divide " what, 132, two women 
open it for Fremont, 133. 

The trapper and a civilized woman 
again, 138. 

The West tardily appreciated by the 
East, 60, 77, 78, 196-198, 200, 224. 

Tippecanoe, battle of, 52, -53. 

Trappers of the Hudson Bay Company 
everywhere, 43, 44. 

Trappers' festival at Fort Walla 
Walla, 160. 

Treaty of Fort Stanwix, Indian boun- 
dary fixed by, 32. 

Treaty of 1783, American struggle in, 
to save the northwest, 31 ; un- 
fortunately expressed, 180. 

Treaty of 1794 and English surrender 
of the seven posts, 48. 

Treaty at last for Oregon, 282-296; 
main article of, 282 ; time required 



362 



INDEX. 



to write it, 282 ; steps taken to run 
the line, 297; English commissioner 
not empowered to run the con- 
tinental part of the line, 297-298, 
302, 303 ; still diplomacy, 298 ; the 
treaty without a map, 298, 299. 

Tuscany exchanged for Louisiana, 20. 

Twiss, Professor, cm discovery of the 
Columbia, 216. 

Tyler, President, urges the settle- 
ment of the Oregon question, 256 ; 
announces negotiations as begun, 
260. 

United States, claims of, to Oregon, 
212, 223, 284 ; tedious settlement of, 
through sixty years, 212 ; claim by 
prior discovery, 213-21G ; by the 
Louisiana Purchase, 216, 217 ; by 
prior explorations, 217-219 ; by prior 
settlements, 219, 220 ; no English 
clairii possible between Spanish 
ownership and the American pur- 
chase, 216, 217. 222 ; openly explored 
by the United States as purchased 
property, 217, 218 ; England enters 
no protest, 218 ; explorations con- 
tinued without protest, 219 ; the 
first settlement in Oregon was 
American, Astor's, 219, 220 ; con- 
tinous life of civilization afterward, 
220 ; Florida Treaty conveyed to 
the United States all Spain claimed 
north of latitude forty-two, 222, 223 ; 
Great Britain makes important con- 
cession, 223 ; other claims of, 262 ; 
not perfect claim, 283 ; as stated by 
J. Q. Adams, 285 ; offer of forty-nine 
vainly renewed by Mr. Everett, 286 ; 
President Polk in his inaugural, 1845, 
asserts the American claim to be 
"clear and unquestionable," 286 ; a 
new offer and rejected by Minister 
Pakenham, 287; policy of " notice" 
and probable war discussed for 
, months, 287, 228 ; United States dis- 
covers the Hudson Bay Company 
as the real power in negotiation, 
288 ; gloomy anxieties of the peo- 
ple, 296 ; proposal of arbitration 
declined, 290 ; renewed and de- 
clined, 291 ; hopes of "settlement, 
291, 292 ; " notice " served on Great 
Britain, 292, 293 ; draft of a treaty 
obtained, approved, ratified, and 
proclaimed, 293 ; United States agree 
to protect the rights of the Hud- 
son Bay Company, and Puget Sound 
Agricultural Company, south of 
forty-nine, 294 ; amount of indem- 
nity, 295. 
Utrecht Treaty of 1713, 18. 



Vancouver barely fails to discover the 
Columbia, 214. 

Vancouver Island and deflected bound- 
ary offered, 1826, 288; free ports 
on, offered, 287 ; offer of island re- 
newed, 288. 

Vergennes, secret agent of France to 
recover Louisiana, 19. 

Virginia, population of, 1650, 6. 

Wagons first taken into the moimt- 
ains, 79. 

Wagons for Oregon, 140-146: two 
hundred, 239-254. 

War of 1812 stimvdated by the Eng' 
lish through the Indians, 52, 53. 

War, almost, for Oregon, 310-314. 

War of 1812, and one object of, 50. 

Washington on danger of early seces- 
sion, 51 ; obligation of the United 
States to divine providence, 135; 
on Indian wars, as instigated by the 
English, 324, 325. 

Washington, discontent of, till he 
could explore the Western country, 

Webster, Daniel, offers memorandum 
for settlmg the Boundary Question, 
180, 225 ; becomes Secretary of State 
in 1841 and proposes negotiation, 
180, 181 ; state of the case, 181 ; 
concludes the treaty in 1842 with 
Lord Ashburton, 181, 182; accumu- 
lated perplexities of the case, 182 ; 
impossible to include Oregon, 182 ; 
treaty and author criticised, 183 ; 
delicate and difficult work in the 
temper of the times, 183-185 ; mis- 
understood and blamed in the Ore- 
gon interest, 224; did not indulge 
the war spirit, 224 ; adopted Whit- 
man's theory and plan to save Ore- 
gon, 225 ; omitted Oregon from the 
Ashburton theory, as impossible, 
226, 227, 255 ; made full claim up to 
forty-nine, 226; times not ripe for 
inserting it in the Ashburton Treaty, 
226; Sustained by Calhoun, 227; 
injustice has been done in attribut- 
ing to Webster the neglect of Oregon, 
228 ; this impression traditional and 
imhistoric, 228 ; published by Rev. 
H. H. Spalding and copied by Gray, 
Hines, " Missionary Herald," "At- 
lantic Monthly," and "Ely Vol- 
ume," of the American Board of 
Missions, 229-232; the published 
statements are contrary to the offi- 
cial documents, 232-234 ; contrary 
to the policy of the United States 
smce 1814, 234 ; various reasons for 
the error, 235-237 ; on war for Ore- 



INDEX. 



363 



gon, 276-278, 280; expounda the 
Ashburton Treaty, 278. 

Whitman, Marcus, M. 1),, missionary 
to Oregon, 117, 121 ; exploring tour 
of, 121, 122 ; engages as missionary, 
127 ; finds an associate, 127-129 ; 
his " Old Wagon," 140-146 ; left at 
Fort Boist5 temporarily, 143 ; discov- 
ers a project of the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany, and lays a plan, 162 ; hasty 
preparation for a daring ride to 
Washington to carry intelligence, 
163 ; perils of the trip, 163 ; his deep 
determination, 164 ; the great issues 
involved, 164, 165 ; opposition of his 
friends gives way, 165 ; ready to 
start in twenty-four hours, 165, 166 ; 
general course of route, 167, 168 ; 
lost in the mountain storms and 
swimming the rivers, and arrival at 
Santa F«5, 168-172; arrival in St. 
Louis, 174 ; his appearance, 175, 
176 ; his reception, and his haste to 
be gone, 174-177 ; arrival at Wash- 
ington, 177 ; some other wonderful 
rides, 177, 178; Ashburton Treaty 
closed months before, with Oregon 
left out, 179 ; no evidence of his dis- 
satisfaction with the policy of the 
treaty, 187 ; the omission of Oregon 
created his opportimity, 187, 188, 
228, 237, 238, 256 ; was not slighted 
at Washington, 201, 202; satisfied 
with the omission, 227 ; gave notice 
as he canm over the plains, of tak- 
ing back emigrants, 239, 240 ; visits 
Boston and is reproved for leaving 
his mission, 241 ; suffered for being 
in advance of the times, 242, 243 ; 
great caravan prepares for Oregon, 
243 ; growth of settlement by em- 
igration, 244, 245 ; activity of Dr. 
Whitman on the march, 245 ; testi- 
monials, 246 ; usual troubles at Fort 
Hall, 247-249 ; Fremont as an escort, 
249, 250 ; a wide rally for Oregon, 
250-252 ; happy arrival of Dr. Whit- 
man, 253, 254 ; report of, in Congress 
a stimulus, 257, 258, and on the 
country, 263. 

Whitman Massacre, 320-329 ; thirteen 
or more savagely murdered, and 
fifty made captive, 320 ; English 
policy of occupation, 321 ; Amer- 
ican policy of settlement, 321, 322 ; 
conflict of English and American 
policies, 322, 323 ; Indian view of 
the two policies, 322, 323 ; treaty of 
1846 disappointed and alarmed the 
Hudson Bay Company, 323 ; massa- 



cre not necessarily planned by 
whites, 324 ; Indian nature sufficient 
cause, 324, 325 ; Indian superstition 
about medicine, and cases illustra- 
tive, 325, 326 ; statement of Brou- 
illet, Vicar-General, 326, 327 ; state- 
ment of Evans, 327 ; of the American 
Board, 327, 328 ; of Eells, 328 ; gen- 
eral causes operating to produce the 
massacre, 328, 329. 

Westcott, warmth of, on war for Ore- 
gon, 275. 

"Westminster Review," opinions of, 
194, 196, 267. 

Western men saved the farther West, 
79, 198. 

Westward movement of the nation, 
144, 145 ; not favored by Jackson, 
Winthrop, and Webster, 199, 200. 

White, EJijah, government agent, 
leads first emigrant band to Oregon, 
190. 

Wild animals, different estimates of, 
by the thirteen colonies and the 
Hudson Bay Company, 98, 99. 

William, Emperor of Germany, settles 
the San Juan boundary, in favor of 
the United States, 318, 319. 

Wilkinson, General, suspected of pro- 
moting secession of the Southwest, 
51. 

Winthrop, John, his theory of a home, 
115, 116, 129. 

Winthrop, Robert C, warm claims of, 
for Oregon, 258, 259, against notice 
to close " joint occupation," 274. 

" Wolf Meeting," the beginning of 
civil government in Oregon, 265. 

Wolf steals Dr. Whitman's axe, 172. 

Womanly heroism, 127-139. 

Women, unworthy, sent to New World 
for marriage, 123-125. 

Women, white, first to cross the 
Rocky Mountains, 121-139. 

Wyeth, Nathaniel J., and singular 
outfit and excursion, and failure, 81- 
84. 

Xavier, promptness of, 165. 

Yancey, on war for Oregon. 

Yazoo, Washita, Arkansas, Missouri, 

and Mississippi explored by D'lber- 

ville, 10. 

Zacheey, one of Whitman's emigrants, 
150, 151. 

Zachrey of Texas and misrepresenta- 
tions of the Hudson Bay Company, 
150, 151. 



9lmeritatt Cotnmontoealtl^s. 

EDITED BY 

HORACE E. SCUDDER. 



A series of Histories of the representative Common? 
wealths of the United States. 

VIRGINIA. A History of the People. By John Esten 

CooKE, author of " Life of Stonewall Jackson/' etc. 

OREGON. The Struggle for Possession. By William 
Barrows, D. D. 

MARYLAND. The History of a Palatinate. By Wil- 
liam Hand Browne, Associate of Johns Hopkins University. 

KENTUCKY. A Pioneer Commonwealth. By Nathaniel 

S. Shaler, S. D., Professor of Paleeontology, Harvard University. 

MICHIGAN. A History of Governments. By Thomas 
McIntyre Cooley, LL. D., formerly Chief Justice of Michigan, 

KANSAS. The Prelude to the War for the Union. By 
Leverett W. Spring, formerly Professor in English Literature 
in the University of Kansas. 

CALIFORNIA. From the Conquest in 1846 to the Second 
Vigilance Committee in San Francisco. By Josiah Royce, for- 
merly Professor in the University of California. 

NEW YORK. The Planting and the Growth of the Em- 
pire State. By the Hon. Ellis H. Roberts, author of " Govern^ 
ment Revenue." In two volumes. 

CONNECTICUT. A Study of a Commonwealth-Dem- 
ocracy. By Professor Alexander Johnston, author of " Amer- 
ican Politics." • 

MISSOURI A Bone of Contention. By Lucien Carr, 
M. A., Ai^sistant Curator of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology. 

INDIANA. A Redemption from Slavery. By J. P. 
Dunn, Jr., author of " Massacres of the Mountains." 

OHIO. First-Fruits of the Ordinance of 1787. By Hon. 
RuFUS King. {Nearly Ready.) 

In Preparation. 

NEW JERSEY. By Austin Scott, Ph. D., Professor 

of History, etc., in Rutgers College. 

PENNSYL VANIA. By Hon. Watne MacVeagh, late 

Attorney-General of the United States. 
ILLINOIS. By E. G. Mason. 

Other Volumes to he announced hereafter. Each volume, 
with Map, 16mo, gilt top, $1.25. 



"KENTUCKY:' 

The author of it is admirably qualified to give us the history of the 
State of which he is a native, to the scientific examination of which 
he has given his eminent professional service, and of whose popula- 
tion he is proud because of the heroic and manly qualities it has mani- 
fested in many crises of its public affairs. — Christian Register (Bos- 
ton). 

Prof. Shaler sees how little the people he was born amongst know 
the rest of mankind, and how little they are in turn known ; and this 
book is chiefly an attempt to explain and defend the peculiar ideas of 
political and social life which characterize Kentuckians. This effort 
is successful and interesting. — ■ Chicago Tribune. 

An excellent map of Kentucky is a welcome feature of this concise 
and well-written volume. — Magazine of American History, 

"MICHIGAN:' 

An ably written and charmingly interesting volume. . . . For vari- 
ety of incident, for transitions in experience, for importance of events, 
and for brilliancy and ability in the service of the leading actors, the 
history of Michigan offers rare attractions ; and the writer of it has 
brought to his task the most excellent gifts and powers as a vigorous, 
impartial, and thoroughly accomplished historian. — Christian Register 
(Boston). 

Other States cover only special lines, as it were, of political history ; 
Michigan seems to have covered the whole, and hence furnishes an 
admirable field for a history of governments. More fortunate still, 
she has in Judge Cooley a man of great and acknowledged ability, 
learning, and authority upon all such themes. . . . From its distin- 
guished author, but even more from its profoundly valuable subject- 
matter, this is a work to repay abundantly the diligent study of all 
our citizens. — The Literary World. 

"KANSAS." 

Few, even of actual participants in the Kansas struggle, have so 
complete a knowledge of it that they cannot learn something from 
this narrative. Professor Spring has been diligent in research to a 
degree that merits special praise, and his diligence has been inspired 
and controlled by method, so that it has borne rich fruits. — The Ex- 
aminer (New York). 

In all respects one of the very best of the series. . . . His work ex- 
hibits diligent research, discrimination in the selection of the mate- 
rials, and skill in combining his chosen stuff into a narration that has 
unity, and order, and lucidity. — Hartford Courant. 



PRESS NOTICES. 



" VIRGINIAN 

Mr. Cooke has made a fascinating volume — one which it will be 
very difficult to surpass either in method or interest. If all the vol- 
umes of the series ["American Commonwealths"] come up to the 
level of this one — in interest, in broad tolerance of spirit, and in a 
thorough comprehension of what is best worth telling — a very great 
service will have been done to the reading public. True historic in- 
sight appears through all these pages, and an earnest desire to do all 
parties and religions perfect justice. The story of the settlement of 
Virginia is told in full. ... It is made as interesting as a romance. 
— The Critic (New York). 

It need not be said that it is written in a fascinating style, and ani- 
mated by a spirit of strong love for the author's native State, and 
pride in its history. It should be said further that it brings out many 
an obscure or forgotten bit of history, and makes real an epoch which 
is familiar to very few. — New York Evening Post. 

" OREGON." 

The long and interesting story of the struggle of five nations for 
the possession of Oregon is told in the graphic and reliable narrative 
of William Barrows. ... A more fascinating record has seldom been 
written. . . . Careful research and pictorial skill of narrative commend 
this book of antecedent history to all interested in the rapid march and 
wonderful development of our American civilization upon the Pacific 
coast. — Springfield Republican. 

There is so much that is new and informing embodied in this little 
volume that we commend it with enthusiasm. It is written with great 
ability. — Magazine of American History (New York). 

"MARYLAND." 

With great care and labor he has sought out and studied original 
documents. By the aid of these he is able to give his work a value 
and interest that would have been impossible had he followed slav- 
ishly the commonly accepted authorities on his subject. His investi- 
gation in regard to toleration in Maryland is particularly noticeable. 
- — New York Evening Post. 

A substantial contribution to the history of America. — Magazine 
9f American History. 



"CALIFORNIA:' 

The formation of the modern commonwealth of California is a phe- 
nomenon which never has been matched, and probably never will be. 
, . . Mr. Royce has undertaken to study, in a philosophical spirit, the 
causes and circumstances of this social evolution. — New York Tribune, 

The study is one of sociological changes, never before known be- 
cause the sociological conditions have never before existed in history., 
The problem is new and most fascinating. Every facet of it has a 
distinct light. Professor Royce has turned it round and round, has 
received its various lights, and has cast upon it some of his owDo 
, o . The style is as breezy as varied. — San Francisco Bulletin. 

''NEW YORK." 

The field occupied, embracing so much time and such variety of inci- 
dent, such extent of territory fought over and contended for by so 
many different races, so complete development of indastrial and com- 
mercial interest, with all the iostitutions of social and civil life grow, 
ing up among a mixed and shifting population, requires that the 
historian have a full and firm grasp upon his subject, as a whole and 
in its details, that he may preserve harmony and proportion through- 
out. This requisite the author had, and his book is admirable in the 
just prominence given to the several topics according to their impor- 
tance to the story as a whole. — Boslon Transcript. 

Mr. Roberts has executed his difficult task with signal ability. He 
has put into less than eight hundred pages all the truly significant 
events which have gone to the making up of New York history from 
1524 to the present day. — New York Journal of Commerce. 

" CONNECTICUT." 

The most interesting portions of Professor Johnston's valuable and 
spirited volume are those which demonstrate the precedence of Connec- 
ticut iu the establishment of the democratic principle of goveiiOtnent 
which now makes the essential feature of the American plan, and 
those which exhibit the influence of the Connecticut town-system in 
the development of our national theory of local self-rule combined 
with federal authority. In the prominence given to these important 
points the author shows an appreciation not only of the intrinsic 
character of his subject but of the best uses of the excellent and well 
edited series in which his book takes a high place. — New York Tribune. 

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., Boston. 



